We Are Angels
by x-mas
Summary: In typical Stargate style, SG1 get involved on a planet where things are a lot more complicated than they first appear when they come face to face with something they all thought was a myth.
1. Chapter 1

Hello! Welcome to the story. This is a cross over, Stargate and Angel Sanctuary. Neither of which are my property unfortunatly. Please forgive any mistakes in terms of continuity, I do my best but I'm not afraid to just casually ignore things if they get in the way of my stories. Enjoy!

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Chapter One

A thick pine forest stood, silent except for the occasional sounds of invisible animals deep within, as it had for eternity, stroking the wind with its many green fingers. It stretched across the landscape, a sleepy cat, growing and shrinking over the years as fires, floods and winds picked at its borders, idly attempting to challenge its dominance over the landscape. But none succeeded, the forest stood, paying no attention to time, to anything, just existing. The forest did not live, it was too static for that, it simply was. Even it's few animal inhabitants did not really live there, they simply stayed a while before moving on to more hospitable lands. The forest was old, it was magnificent so much so that nothing could make its home there unless it was a tree or some hardy floor dwelling plant. With one exception.

A stone ring. Not in the centre of the forest, not in a clearing, not anywhere of significance, just among the trees, in the tiniest of gaps, in what was almost a dent in the landscape there stood a stone ring. Strange simples adorned its surface, clogged now with ivy, moss and the fallen leaves of the overshadowing trees. A few feet in front of it a fat, toad like structure sat, its symbols, which corresponded to those on the circle, barely recognisable. The structure was old, the ring was old, as old as the forest if not much older and it was as unloving as the forest. It simply was. The red stone in the centre of the structure was dimmed; the light and life had faded out of it many years ago.

As always happens in these cases, such a status quo can not be maintained. Where there is normally silence there must eventually be sound, where there is normally death there must eventually be life and where nothing has occurred for centuries, something truly remarkable must come to be.

It is impossible to say what the forest noticed first, was it the sound of the ring jerking awake as if hit by lightening? Was it the enormous flash of light as the centre of the circle filled with and projected a tongue of bright blue liquid several feet forwards into the trees? Or was it the sudden invasion of four, very alive human beings.

"Well this is different," Jack O'Neil. Colonel of the U.S air force was not a man of habit. No matter how much he yearned for the quiet solitude of a day fishing and the predictability of knowing that he would never catch anything, that was not what he wanted when he came to work. He had become tired of stepping through the gate and finding himself in a sunny clearing with a forest in the distance, or into a desert, or a room in some ancient civilisations laboratory. There was a certainty that it would be one of those and that bored him. So to step into a thick, oppressive forest that blocked out the sun completely was a pleasant change. "Keep your eyes open people. We have no idea what could be hiding around here."

"The plants here could have amazing potential. Sir, I don't recognise any of these. One of these planets could hold the key to curing something like cancer."

"Carter. You can collect samples once we figure out if anyone lives here and if they're friendly."

"Yes Sir," was the slightly dejected response.

Jack suppressed a chuckle, "Let's move out."

O'Neil, Carter and their two colleagues Daniel Jackson and Teal'c set out from the gate picking a careful path across the overgrown forest floor. Teal'c moved with a grace seemingly incompatible with his large size, his feet found dry hard ground at every step avoiding the cackling of leaves and the swish of clothes against grass and ivy. He was a man at home with nature, a man who had grown up in a place where ancient forests were still very much a normal part of the landscape. It marked him out as different from his companions as alien, which is what he in fact was. O'Neil and Carter were military to the core, that was obvious, they both avoided noise just as Teal'c did but their avoidance was not as natural, they looked for where to place their feet, they did not instinctively know. Daniel looked for where to place his feet, but as often as not he placed his feet on the crunchy leaves or, misjudging how close he was to a tree and brushed against it sending a scattered noise into the silence.

Eventually, they became aware that the light slope they had been walking up was turning into a rather steep hill and that as they moved up, the trees were starting to thin out, clinging more precariously to the hill side, fighting for space and nutrients, twisting themselves into unusual shapes to anchor themselves in he hill side.

"Hopefully, when we get to the top of this, we'll be able to see if there are any settlements near by. Or at least get an idea of how big this forest is," said Carter, hopefully as she paused for breath, holding onto a sturdy pine for support.

"Hopefully," Jack echoed, adding "but whatever happens we'll have had a lovely time climbing it" in sarcastic tones.

Daniel would have sniggered, but he didn't have the breath, Carter just about managed to smile weakly.

Up and up and up they went. It seemed like forever before the land started to even out, heralding an end to their climb. The trees were much further apart and the sun occasionally succeeded in forcing its way through, striking the floor and breaking into a thousand shards. The floor was also much more sparsely populated, no plants, just the yellowed needles that had fallen over many years, piling up on top of each other.

The transition was very sudden. One moment, they were luxuriating in their new, open, cheerful environment the next they were standing on the top of a rocky ridge staring out across a sea of greenery in all directions. But it was not the vastness of the forest that drew their eyes or inspired their awe. It was the city.

"Holy…" Daniel bit off the end of his explanation, what he was seeing was beyond description.

It was enormous. At it's core a cluster of huge, white, tubular buildings thrust their way into the sky, their domed tops partially obscured by the clouds. They stood at various heights, each with a slightly different metallic colour running in a strip up their sides. Around this central cluster there floated smaller settlements. They were each attached to the central buildings by a thin white structure, almost like a branch, from which in some occasions smaller branches emerged holding smaller settlements. These islands were clearly covered with buildings, with life. There were more than could be counted. Some in the clouds, some at tree level and obviously some below tree level, possibly even some at ground level that were invisible.

"Don't get too excited Carter, they might not want to share."

"I really hope they do Sir. I mean, look at that. It's amazing. They look advanced enough to have space travel, they could be at a stage where they've abandoned using the gate because their space travel is so efficient."

"Carter," Jack repeated, warningly, "They might not want to share."

"But Sir…"

"Jack's right Sam, we should actually find out how advanced they are and if they're even friendly before we start planning the benefits. Anyhow, perhaps we should show an interest in their culture before we start asking them for their technology."

Jack shook his head as the constant battle between technological interests and cultural fascinations surfaced again. Daniel and Sam never would see eye-to-eye on which was more important. It didn't really matter to Jack; he would simply follow orders, if he were told to only be interested in culture then that would be exactly what he would do, but his orders were rarely along those lines. This could lead to conflict between himself and Daniel, Daniel did not understand the military mind and could not understand why Jack's need to follow orders would stop him following his own beliefs.

"Have to agree with you Daniel. We're going to take this one slowly and carefully. We know how touchy these advanced types are, the Tollan, the Tok'ra."

"Yes sir."

It was decided that attempting to make their way down the steep slope that descended directly from the ridge was almost suicidal. So they proceeded along the ridge to where they could see it starting to gently sweep round in a natural ramp towards the forest floor. The descent into the thick forest was a fairly traumatic experience. It closed in with a threatening suddenness and the light was again blocked out by thick foliage.

"It's so quiet," Sam said, softly, after all glimpses of light had vanished. She felt the atmosphere had changed, the forest felt more like an entity and it did not feel welcoming, "Where are all the animals?"

"Major Carter is correct O'Neil. I have not seen or heard a single living creature since our arrival."

"Yeah Teal'c, I noticed that too. Keep your eyes open people. Something about this place doesn't feel right."

Crunch. Swish. Crunch. Swish. Crunch. Swish. O'Neil's militarily tuned sense of danger started to prickle as he realised that the sounds he was hearing were greater than and further away than the small noises made by Daniel's slightly clumsy movements. The crunching of leaves, the ripping sound of plants being torn out of the soil marked the approach of something big.

O'Neil gestured to his team, indicating that they slow down, progress warily to intercept the approaching unknown. Teal'c raised his staff weapon, crouching lower, becoming more animalistic in his movements. Sam and Jack clicked into military mode, raising weapons, seeming to become more alert in all ways through there was no physical change. Daniel, typically, just flushed and looked more awkward. They edged forward slowly, the approaching being did not take any such care, it seemed oblivious to their existence. Tension built in all of them, the noise increased; it was irregular as if something was lurching through the wood, some injured animal, flailing in the foliage. The noise climaxed into a sudden burst of noise, then silence.

Jack increased his speed, he had a sudden feeling that the approaching creature was not a threat; it needed their help more than anything. He did not have to go far to find himself proven right. The cause of the noise was lying on his side on the forest floor breathing heavily and rapidly, dark blood stained his clothes across his abdomen welling up through the fingers that desperately tried to contain it. He appeared to be in his early teens, small, very thin with lightly tanned skin, long blonde hair hitting his shoulders and falling into the large brown eyes that stared out of his terrified face at them.

"Please…" he gasped, the effort of speaking wet his lips with blood, "Please…" the second effort was too much and he coughed convulsively blood spraying the forest floor.

"Oh shit, Carter," Jack was capable enough when it came to administering first aid in the field, an inability to handle core was not compatible with his job. But this was a child; Jack had never felt particularly comfortable with children and even less comfortable with teenagers and in a situation where one was hurt, in pain and desperate for some kind of comfort he did not know what to do.

Carter on the other hand, did have a maternal streak as well as having more medical training. She knelt by the injured boy, without hesitation, hands gentle as they pulled back his blood soaked clothes to investigate the wounds beneath. "He needs urgent medical treatment sir. His injuries are too serious for me to make any difference, I can't stabilise him."

Jack sighed, "Hey kid, is there any way we can contact your people? Or a quick way we can get to the city?"

Jack did not expect his words to have the effect they did. The boys already pale face seemed to turn several shades whiter, his eyes widened even further and filled with dread.

"No. Please…"

"What's wrong?"

"You can't," he choked, "You can't take me to the city. Please!"

"For crying out loud, why not?" Jack demanded.

"You can't!"

"Sir, we have to get him to a doctor and we have to do it now," Sam was cradling the boy's body in her arms, struggling to contain the most obvious bleeding while painfully aware that there were more injuries that she couldn't see, Each time he spoke, he attempted to pull himself out of her grip as if their refusal to grant his request would result in him attempting to continue his journey alone.

"Jack…"

"Yes Daniel?" was the irritable response.

"Think about why he might not want to be taken to the authorities. This could become a political nightmare if we're not careful…"

"I haven't done anything!" The exclamation was sudden, aggressive, with a touch of hysteria, "Just….can't go to the city."

"I really don't think this is a good idea Jack."

Taking a deep breath the boy pulled himself away from Sam. Surprised and not wanting to hurt him she let him roll onto his hands and knees. Using the tree, he started to pull himself upright, "If you're not going to help me…" his breath came in huge gasps between words shortening and tightening to the point where he didn't have enough breath to finish the sentence.

Sam tried to take his arm, to support him but he shook her off, pulled away. "Sir," she exclaimed in frustration, "If we let him leave now he will die."

Jack looked at her, and then looked at the stubborn teenager next to her. He was shaking, so badly that he could barely lean against the tree trunk. There was so much blood, which the boy was studiously ignoring, staring defiantly into Jack's eyes instead, using every scrap of energy he had to maintain his dignity and pride.

"Ok. We won't take you to the city. You can come back with us." The boy hesitated, Jack sighed in frustration, "What now?"

"Where…"

The limits of his strength had clearly been reached, his legs gave way and he slumped, would have fallen but for Teal'c's intervention. "We should leave now O'Neil."

The return journey was a nightmare. Navigating the forest had been difficult enough when the group consisted only of able-bodied members, with a severely injured person to transport it became nearly impossible. Roots rose out of the ground to grab at their feet, dips and slopes took them by surprise and they tripped and stumbled supporting their limp burden. Initial attempts to spare him the pain of the bumps and jolts were abandoned as it became clear that just getting him to the gate was more important than anything else though the occasional groans and muffled cries that he allowed to escape filled them with guilt. He was barely conscious and they were all painfully aware that his death was not an unlikely scenario.

**********

General Hammond had, over the years, learnt to dread the sound of an unscheduled off world activation. He had also learnt that it did not matter whether or not the activation was accompanied with SG1s activation code or not, it was likely to bring him a serious headache. Sighing to himself he made his way towards the gate room, troops passed him in the corridors, running in case SG1 were bringing an unfriendly force through the gate or had been replaced by an unfriendly force as had occasionally happened in the past.

He reached the gate room just in time to see SG1 arrive. They were not alone. Supported between Teal'c and Daniel there was someone that should not be there, a clearly severely injured teenager. "Get Doctor Frasier down here immediately. Will someone kindly tell me what is going on."

"Nice planet. Really big city, looks kind of cool. We were gonna visit but we bumped into this kid. Didn't seem too keen on coming with us, so we brought him here."

Dr Frasier's arrival prevented Hammond from responding immediately, "What's the boy's condition Doctor?"

She shook her head, "He's a mess. I won't know anything for sure until I get him to the infirmary."

"Very well. Keep me informed. Colonel O'Neil, I'll see you and your team in the briefing room as soon as you're ready."

"Yes Sir," came the subdued chorus of responses. Hammond shook his head, SG1 might bring him endless headaches and problems, but they did make life interesting.

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Thanks for reading! Reviews are welcome.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The conference room at the SGC, which doubled as a briefing room for the teams, was a fairly comfortable room. The furniture was streamlined, it was practical, designed to double as a diplomatic space as well as for the every day functions it performed. Its greatest flaw was the lack of natural light, but that had to be accepted considering it was located under a mountain. SG1 sat, waiting for General Hammond's arrival. Their casual, lounging positions were not those to be expected of a group of people about to have to explain why they'd brought a potential danger into a top secret, top security level base. Their body language declared that this was a fairly routine occurrence.

Cutting through their idle chatter, the door banged open and General Hammond entered with a frowning Dr Frasier in tow. He sat down, glaring commandingly at SG1, whose postures had smartened up remarkably in the short time it had taken for him to settle himself.

"An explanation, Colonel O'Neil."

"I'm not sure I have a satisfactory one, Sir."

"What happened?"

"The planet seems to be home to a very advanced civilisation. We saw a city, from a distance. Think halfway between the Tollan and the Nox. Didn't seem aware of the gate though, that was abandoned."

"Ok and our young guest comes in, where?"

"Bumped into him in the forest. He didn't seem too keen on the idea of paying that lovely city a visit. Kid was very sick Sir, we had to bring him back."

"Did he care to elaborate as to why Colonel?"

"Not really," Jack replied, with a flippant smile.

General Hammond nodded, "Well from what Doctor Frasier has been telling me you may have made the best decision. If you would Doctor."

"Yes Sir," Dr Frasier stood and nodded to the airmen at the back of the room who moved to work the projector, "His injuries are extensive, we've managed to stabilise him but his physiology is throwing up some major problems. It's like nothing I've ever seen before." She nodded and a digital diagram of a body, internal organs exposed flashed up on the screen, "This is his basic physiology. It's essentially human; there are some notable differences in the digestive system but nothing we haven't seen before in other humans we've encountered. However," she nodded again and the diagram changed to show blue lines wrapping their way around bones and through organs, "his body seems to have been, infected, by what seems to be an organic alien system."

"Infected? Are we talking disease or Goa'uld?" Daniel interrupted, angrily, thinking to himself that his reservations about bringing the boy back might have been justified.

"If it is Goa'uld technology or not I can't say. All I can say is that it does not seem to be in his brain or the brain stem though it is in his spinal cord. As far as I can tell his body is almost entirely dependent on this organism," she nodded again and a diagram of a heart appeared, "As you can see his heart has been pierced at several strategic points. The severe scaring on the heart would indicate that it couldn't function without the organism's intervention."

"So, this could be some kind of medical treatment?" asked Sam.

"That is a possibility I don't want to rule out," said Dr Frasier, with certain reluctance in her voice, "But from what I've seen it doesn't seem to have been designed to be compatible with a human system. It seems, that it is essentially suppressing his immune system. Almost all his white blood cells are dormant and I don't see why someone would create a medical treatment that prevents their own immune system working. It doesn't make any sense."

"Teal'c, sound like anything you saw hanging around in a Goa'uld lab?" asked Jack, turning to their silent team member.

"I have not encountered anything of this nature O'Neil. A Goa'uld would have no need for such technology if they were in the possession of a sarcophagus."

"And I doubt they'd make one to save their human slaves," said Daniel, "Is he going to survive, I mean, is this organism helping him?"

"Frankly, I don't know," Dr Frasiers face softened, becoming Janet, the medical officer who could be as compassionate as she could be forceful, "We've done what we can but the organisms presence is preventing us from performing any kind of surgery. It seems to be immune to sedatives, or else it feeds of a separate bloody supply or even no blood supply. I don't know. Whichever it is, any attempt at surgery results in the organism forming an almost solid barrier blocking us from getting in and doing anything. I don't know if it's healing him, all I can say is that he's not dead yet and that's something of a miracle."

"What are we going to do Sir?" Cater asked, looking at General Hammond for their orders.

"I think it would be unwise to return to the planet until we know more about what's going on. Keep me informed Doctor, I want to know the minute that boy is awake. Dismissed."

*******

Jack did not feel comfortable with children. This could not be emphasised enough, but for some reason he was still always drawn to them. He had been a father once and it was the loss of his own child that had caused his inability to interact with children effectively. It was also that which made it so hard for him to stay away from them. He always had those feelings of regret, of wondering whether his son might have grown to be like any of the youngsters they encountered, searching for any of his personality traits in them. He also felt that pang of anger, when they met children who were abandoned by their families and had no father figures. It felt unjust and it made him want to look after them, care for them as he had for Skaara over the years. So it was fairly inevitable that after a half hearted attempt to do some paperwork his feet would take him to the infirmary.

The guards on the door saluted him as he entered. The infirmary was an odd place. The lighting was always dimmed to allow patients to sleep whenever they needed to no matter the time of day, practicalities aside it made the place seem rather foreboding and unwelcoming. It was unwelcoming in general with its stark concrete walls and exposed pipe work, furnished only with medical equipment and absolutely nothing to distract from its purpose. Jack felt a vague sense of guilt, one that he had felt before, that they didn't make more effort to lessen the shock of waking up in a hospital potentially on an alien planet.

The boy was in the bed furthest from the door, giving him further to go should he try and escape. He didn't look capable of it. He was unconscious, obviously, deathly pale except for the dark hollows in which his eyes sat that spoke of recent lack of speak and hinted at recent bruising. His pale arms were mottled with bruises and were now home to a variety of needles and tubes each of which, it seemed to Jack, was surrounded by a slight bulge. It seemed that the invading organism was barely tolerating their intervention.

In this state, it was easier for Jack to assess the facts about the boy. He looked young, no older than 16 and his soft features made him suspect that he was in fact younger. He was smaller than Jack would have expected of a normal human teenager, in height and weight. He was unsure whether that was simply a fact of evolution or whether it was an indication of under nourishment in early life. Considering the advanced nature of the city they'd seen, starvation should have been a thing of the past but the boy's physiology implied that he perhaps hadn't experienced all the benefits of his planets advancement.

"Jack," Dr Frasier announced her presence from the door so as not to shock her visitor, "He's doing well. He's stable at least," she said, approaching him.

"Some of those bruises are old," he said, trying to sound casual but an element of anger crept into his voice all the same.

"He has a lot of old injuries. His x-rays show old breaks in his arms and legs. He has scars that show evidence of some horrific injuries. He's lived a brutal life in recent years."

"So much for an advanced civilisation."

"We can't judge them Jack. We don't know how or why he got hurt. It could all have been accidental, he could have done something to justify this treatment."

"Nothing can justify brutalising a child to this extent."

"What if he was a Goa'uld?"

Jack couldn't reply. He knew, in his heart of hearts, that if the boy turned out to have been engineered by the Goa'uld his sympathy would evaporate. If he was a Goa'uld agent and that was the reason for his treatment, Jack would think he had deserved it and not spare it another thought. He knew it was exceptionally hypocritical of him and he knew that he should remember that before he became the Goa'uld's agent the boy would have been a normal, innocent human child. He knew Janet was playing devils advocate, that she herself believed that there was no justification no matter what but she also knew she was not on the diplomatic front line. She could have hard line, black and white moral opinions; Jack could not as he would, potentially, have to speak to the people responsible for the boy's injuries.

As they stared down at the boy, wondering who he was and how he came to be with them, something changed. His chest started to rise and fall with increased speed and violence. His muscles tensed. Janet muttered a curse under her breath.

"What's happening?"

"He's not breathing properly. His lungs are damaged but we can't help him as much as he needs because anything we put into his lungs is rejected," Janet's frustration with his physiology was clear. She hated anything that stopped her doing her job.

Jack watched Janet and her teamwork. It was odd; to think that there was a human body there, unmoving, unconscious with another being inside that was very much awake and moving. It didn't feel quite the same as looking at a Goa'uld host, because what was in the boy did not seem to be sentient. Unwillingly he felt his thoughts being dragged back to his briefest of times as a Goa'uld host and thought that perhaps that was better, that was a sort of suppression, and you could consider it a bad dream if you wished. This youngster would be permanently aware that his body wasn't his own. He shuddered. To him that would be a fate worse than death.

********

"Sir?"

"What?"

"We can't find him."

"I see," was the soft thoughtful response. The voice was smooth and silky but held a hint of venom. It suited the room through which it reverberated. Everything was curved, the wall to the right of the door curved, quite sharply. It was made of glass so thin that you could barely see it, it gave the illusion of stepping out almost directly into the sky. However, it was dark, and instead of an expanse of luscious blue there was blackness so complete it seemed like nothingness. The room was so high up the rest of the city was not even visible.

The desk curved, the chair curved. They were made out of a highly polished, dark material that seemed as if it had bent effortlessly, almost organically, into shape. The space should have been light and inviting, but there was a coldness that spoke of a sort of corruption. The beauty had been undermined.

"We looked everywhere sir."

"Everywhere except for that elusive place where he is located it would seem."

The man giving the bad news winced at the acidic tone. He was no more than a messenger of low rank, sent simply because his superiors did not wish to face their commanders displeasure. He was starting to realise why. There was nothing overtly threatening in the commander's conduct. He was not a physically powerful man, he had not raised his voice nor had he threatened violence. It was simply something about his presence that was unsettling, something in his body language and in that quiet voice. Frankly, he wanted to be out of there as soon as possible.

The commander turned to face him, though he was hidden in shadows the messenger sensed that the expression on that face was not one he wanted to see. "That he was allowed to escape in the first place is bad enough," he said, speaking slowly, rolling the words around his mouth, "That you are incapable of finding someone so severely injured it is unlikely they could have gotten anywhere near far enough away so as to be in uncharted territory is simply a mystery. That you have the audacity to trouble me with it and to come to me with no real explanation is unacceptable. I do not want to hear from you again unless it is to tell me that he has been found."

"Yes sir," the messenger took it as a dismissal and left, as fast as he possibly could.

The commander watched him go. He never had believed in shooting the messenger. He didn't have much of a problem shooting people, but he was not indiscriminate, he didn't feel that that was an effective way of keeping order. Indiscriminate violence often had the unfortunate side effect of making people feel they had nothing to loose. Which made them much more willing to revolt and that was something to be avoided at all costs.

He settled into his chair, interlocked his fingers and rested his elbows on his knees. The escapee needed to be caught. What he knew was very dangerous; his very existence was dangerous. Even if he was dead, he could not risk his body being found. The plan had been to make him totally disappear. That was more important than ever now.

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Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The boy's first impression as he came to consciousness was that it must be late because he sensed almost no light filtering through his eyelids. Where he was and why he was there were slightly fuzzy concepts but that didn't bother him, at least not at first. He felt comfortable in a way he hadn't done in a long time, he was definitely in a bed and it was warm so it didn't really occur to him to worry.

That changed fairly quickly when recent events flooded back into his mind. Being hurt, meeting the strange people in the forest, he forced his eyes open and looked around urgently fighting back panic. He did not recognise where he was at all. The lighting was dim, the machines were alien to him, and there wasn't even the hint of something familiar.

Trying to tell himself that the lack of recognition meant that he had at least escaped the place he was running from, he forced his breathing to calm so that he could take stock of the situation more fully. He was in pain. His stomach ached, pain throbbing along the patterns of the wounds. He felt sluggish, headachy, his mouth was dry and his limbs felt heavy and unresponsive. He moved them, slowly. They were unrestrained, but one was attached to a stand next to him by a thin tube. He touched it gingerly. It was held to his arm by some kind of sticky sheet, didn't hurt, but he was still reluctant to start pulling at it. He had no idea of its purpose.

"You're awake."

The voice took him by surprise; he whipped his head round so quickly it hurt, searching for its source. A diminutive woman was approaching him. She wore a white coat over a blue shirt, her hair was neatly pulled back from her face and she was smiling. She looked unthreatening, matronly, caring, but the boy was far too suspicious to think that that meant she wouldn't hurt him.

"Don't be scared. We don't mean you any harm. My name is Dr Frasier, what's yours?"

He swallowed. His heart was thumping heavily in his chest, "Where am I?"

"You're in Stargate Command. It's where we keep our stargate."

"What's a stargate?"

"It's a device we can use to travel to other planets," Janet was patient. She knew from experience that conversations with their newly arrived guests had to be carefully handled. She had to be gentle, she would keep answering the boys questions till she felt he trusted her. Then she would ask a few of her own.

The boy frowned, "We have ships for that," he said distractedly, "Who are you really?"

"My name is Dr Janet Frasier. I am the chief medical officer of this facility and a captain in the US air force."

"US air force? What's that? Where is this place?" he demanded, she could hear the panic rising in his voice. She kept smiling, trying to look honest and open while hoping that answering his questions would keep him calm. The last thing she wanted was a fight on her hands at this early stage.

"You're on a planet called Earth. One of our teams found you when they went to your planet through a device called the stargate on an exploration mission. We're explorers."

"But you're human? Humans don't live on other planets only on ours. Why are you lying to me?" the boy sat up fully. Before Janet could react he had ripped the tape from his arm freeing himself and had swung his legs out of bed in an attempt to stand.

"You have got to stay in bed for me," she said sternly, "You have some very severe injuries…"

The boy didn't even bother with words. He was scared but part of his mind was still functioning logically. That part of his mind was telling him that this place was much more primitive than his home and that, his mind told him, meant that his chances of escaping were much increased. So he stood up and made for the door.

Without hesitation Janet grabbed his shoulders to try and force him back onto the bed. He was only a child, she felt perfectly capable of controlling a weak and injured child. He reacted, instinctively, by pushing her away from him as hard as he could. She was not expecting or prepared for the level of strength in his thin arms and was thrown backwards. Her attempt at supporting herself on a tray of equipment sitting against the wall simply brought it crashing to the floor with her. The boy stopped for a moment. Just as she had expected to be able to handle him, he had expected her to be able to handle him. He had not expected her to be so weak. He hesitated, he wanted to make sure she was ok but at the same time could only think about getting away as quickly as possible.

His survival instinct won after only a second's internal struggle. However it was too late to be easy. As he turned for the door he saw that the two guards stationed there had gathered their wits and started to react, they were already approaching him. The first grabbed his arm, loosely, instinctively holding back not being able to believe that such a small, fragile form would be able to hold any strength. The boy pulled his arm free without any trouble, ducking round the first guard as he paused wrong footed by the boy's easy escape. The second guard found himself on the wrong side of his colleague to do anything much to prevent the boy slipping through the door and out into the corridor. He was quicker, nimbler than they expected. Sliding out into the corridor with ease.

The boys initial relief at getting into the corridor was short lived. He had no idea which way to run, where to go, there were no obvious exists. The knowledge that there were guards behind him made him choose a direction and run blindly. As he reached the end of the corridor the air filled with the sounds of a siren and he was fully aware that its purpose was to alert the entire complex that he had escaped. What he'd assumed was a door to another room at the end of the corridor slid open to reveal an elevator. He was less interested in that than in the fact that it was full of people in the same uniform as the guards.

He spun round but found no escape in that direction, the guards from the infirmary had followed him. The doctor was there too. He turned round just as the leader of those in the elevator reached him. He was tall, dark skinned, with a stern face. Teal'c was not about to hold back, he grabbed the boy by his shoulders. He fought hard but Teal'c was strong enough to contain him. He was still surprised by the strength in the youngster's tiny body. Ordinarily when Teal'c stepped in to restrain someone he did it with ease, but in this case he felt his strength being taxed.

"Let go of me!" the boy snarled.

"Teal'c, take him somewhere where he can calm down," Janet ordered, arriving on the scene. Her pride was as bruised as her body. She was patient, but she was certainly not tolerant of any kind of violent behaviour in her infirmary. She was also now concerned. The boy had proved strong and quick even when injured, should it turn out that he was a threat she suspected that he could cause them serious problems in the future.

* * *

"He seemed very confused," Janet told the briefing room a few hours later. SG1 had been gathered by General Hammond to discuss the change in circumstances and were listening to Janets report, "He was very reluctant to believe that we were no longer on his planet. He had no knowledge of the stargate and seemed very reluctant to reveal anything about himself."

"So, typical of our guests really," said Jack, rolling his eyes.

"Where is he now?" asked General Hammond.

"I placed him in a holding cell. I have just returned from there."

"What was he doing when you left Teal'c?"

"He appeared very agitated. I do not believe he means us any harm. He appears to have acted only out of fear."

"Fear of what?"

"That I do not know O'Neil."

"I think it's fairly obvious why he's scared. He got those injuries somehow; someone implanted that organism in him. He doesn't know who we are, for all he knows we're the same people he just ran away from," Daniel was often exasperated by his colleagues tendency to see conspiracy where he saw simplicity.

"What I want to know is whether he poses a threat to the safety of this base," General Hammond shot a significant look round the table. A look that very clearly said that he blamed them all for bringing a potentially dangerous person into their base, again.

"He's strong and fast; stronger and faster than I would have expected of him considering his injuries and his size. Not to mention the fact that he is basically human. I would assume that the organism gives him these benefits. But it didn't seem like he was anything we couldn't handle. Teal'c subdued him easily enough."

"On the contrary Dr Frasier. I suspect that were he at full strength even I would have struggled to contain him."

General Hammond frowned, "I don't like the sound of that."

"While the organism appears to give him biological advantages, there's no evidence to suggest that it provides him with anything that could get him through one of the cell doors," said Major Carter, "I've been looking at the scans and I can't find anything to suggest that it would, for example, function like a Goa'uld hand device. Its not a weapon."

"Well that's something at least," said General Hammond. He turned to O'Neil, "We need to know who he is, and we need to know what is going on on that planet so that we can figure out what we're going to do with our visitor. I'm leaving that to you Colonel. Is that understood?"

Jack pulled a face. He knew better than to argue but he was not happy with the Generals order. He was confused enough about what his opinion on the boy was without being forced to talk to him more than he absolutely had to. Besides which, when it came to talking to people Jack was never good at being subtle and he had learnt that children did not always respond well to bluntness. They needed Sam's more delicate female touch, which often only surfaced when children were involved. Or Teal'c, when he was in gentle giant mode. Jack's successes with children were few and far between.

He wasn't totally inexperienced of course. He'd had his own son and they had gotten on well enough, but with the loss of that child he felt that he had also lost his ability to connect with children. They seemed so different, so alien now. On rare occasions, something of what he had felt to his own son appeared in interactions with individual children. But generally, he dreaded interacting with them and he did not want to be the one responsible for dragging information from this scared, reluctant teenage boy. Who was potentially a Goa'uld threat.

"Colonel O'Neil," General Hammond repeated, tone slightly sterner this time, "Is that understood?"

Jack sighed, "Yes sir."

"Good. Dismissed."

* * *

Jack dragged his heels on the way to the holding cell. Well, as much as any trained soldier can drag their heels. The need to walk quickly, quietly and efficiently was so ingrained that even when Jack attempted to stall, tried to stroll, he still moved at a brisk pace. His body language was incapable of betraying his true feelings. The soldiers guarding the door would never have suspected that Jack was reluctant to be there. His quick nod said nothing more than, 'open the door.'

The cells in the base were not well set up. They were located on a fairly isolated corridor that had a heavy door at the end, which acted as a sort of quarantine from the rest of the base. The doors of the cells themselves were solid with only small viewing windows, which made observation difficult. To speak with a prisoner there were three options, speak through the door, remove the prisoner and take them elsewhere or enter the cell. None of which were exactly ideal. Speaking through the door was just impractical, moving the prisoner gave them a chance to escape and entering the cell put the interviewer at obvious risk.

Jack always chose to enter the cell. The guards would be watching through out the interview, unless the cells occupant was capable of killing him instantly the guard would be in and helping him before anything could go drastically wrong. Were he a civilian this would have been a dangerous attitude, but he was quite capable of defending himself enough to prevent the normal instant killers like neck snapping. He stepped inside and surveyed the cells occupant as the door closed behind him.

The boy was sitting on the bed, tucked into the corner. With one leg up on the bed, the other dangling towards the floor, one arm slung across his knee and head resting on the wall with his eyes closed he looked decidedly casual. He didn't even flinch as the door opened and closed.

"Hello," said Jack, sounding a little awkward, "How you doing?"

The boy opened his eyes, lazily, almost as if he'd been asleep and rolled his head to the side so he was facing Jack. He didn't say anything. His outward calm was as much an illusion as Jacks. His heart was thumping, his mouth was dry and his new environment scared him. He could see no way out and felt that whatever was to come with this man, who he vaguely recognised, it was going to decide the course of upcoming events.

"I'm Jack O'Neil," Jack consciously left off his rank. It would mean nothing good to the boy, "What's do I call you?"

The boy considered. While in the cell he had come to think that he genuinely wasn't on his home world anymore. He could think of no reason why people on his planet would lie about being on his planet. And as he could now see that escape wasn't really an option, cooperation was the best thing he could think of doing.

"Kato."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

When the boy had revealed his name, a name, there was no way of knowing if it was his real name. Jack had breathed a sigh of relief. The reply had been slow but peaceful; the answer was not hard fought. Kato was calm and seemed fairly cooperative so Jack ploughed on with his questions. He did not believe in questioning his good luck

"Who are you?" he asked. Aware of the grandiose nature of the question he was curious to see how the boy would respond. Would it be with typical Goa'uld arrogance? Or something else. In a way, Jack viewed this question as a measure of humanity. Having a ready answer would seem other worldly.

Kato looked slightly puzzled, " I don't understand."

"What are you? What race are you? What do your people call themselves? All that kind of thing," Jack slid onto the opposite end of the bench watching Kato carefully.

He was frowning, "I'm Darsen," he said, "That's what we call ourselves," he added quickly as it occurred to him that a two word answer to three questions probably wouldn't go down well.

"Do all of the Darsen have, whatever it is that you have in your body?"

Kato started slightly, face turning pale "You found it? I'm not one of them I promise. I'm not. I'm Darsen, I didn't want it, I needed it," the casual pose vanished as Kato pulled his leg up, hugging both against his chest in a defensive pose, "I'm not one of them. I'm not."

"Not one of who? What is it in you? Who put it there?"

Jack might as well not have spoken, Kato didn't hear him, "Please don't hurt me," he groaned, "Please. I'm still Darsen. I can't help it. I don't know how it works, you can't take it out, it can't help you. Please. Please, just leave it alone."

Jack was confused by the sudden change. From calm, relaxed and his early defiance the teenager had turned into a terrified child. But Jack was not stupid, his initial bafflement was short lived as he realised exactly what the youngster's behaviour implied.

"That's how you got hurt," he muttered, "Look kid, we're not gonna start cutting you open to get at, whatever that is in you. When we took you off that planet it was to help you, not to harvest bits of you. But if I'm gonna help you, you're gonna have to help me and start answering my questions. Now lets try, what is it in you?"

Kato's posture did not relax and for a few moments, Jack thought that all he had achieved was to silence him permanently. He was just about to say something else, though what he was going to say he didn't quite know, when Kato began speaking in a low, slow voice.

"It's a plant. Sort of. It's a mechanical plant and its what's keeping me alive."

"A mechanical plant? Sounds like something Carter would drool over but even I know that that's impossible."

"I said I didn't know how it works," was the snappy response, "It's in me and it's the only reason I'm alive."

Jack raised his hands defensively, "Alright. Who put it there? And why did you get so scared when I mentioned it?"

"Angels."

"Angels?" Jack was relatively sure that there couldn't have been a more surprising answer. His instant reaction was that the boy was utterly insane. Jack was not a religious man and the mere mention of angels instantly made him incredulous. The boy had said that the organism was keeping him alive, Jack presumed that it had been implanted when Kato was near death. Angels sounded like the hysterical religious ramblings brought about by such a close brush with death. Religious ramblings? He heard Daniels voice in his head telling him off for assuming that all planets would have the same belief systems. He sighed, you always know you've been with someone too long when they become an extra internal voice.

Kato looked just as surprised by Jack's incredulous response as Jack was by Kato's answer, "Yes. Angels."

"I'm sorry, you're going to have to help me out here. Angels? Long white robes, fluffy wings and a halo?"

The question was greeted by a short laugh, "No. Are there no angels on this world?"

"I don't think so. Not that I've ever seen," Jack paused, "What are they like?"

Kato didn't really know how to answer. To communicate what an angel was to someone who had never seen one was a challenge, particularly considering the bizarre impression that Jack seemed to have. Words just didn't seem to lend themselves to describing angels, at least not words in English. The Darsen used English as a universal language following age old disputes over whether to use Goa'uld or adopt the language of the Angels. The outcome had been a decision to use neither. Kato had always favoured the Angel's language because it was the least clumsy, it flowed, and three words could say something that needed a paragraph in English. The Angels words would have been very useful here, but Kato didn't even need to try to know that they wouldn't be understood.

"They do have wings," he said lamely.

"Well that tells me a lot," was the sarcastic response.

Kato flushed slightly. Any other situation and he would have been angry at the jibe, but now he just took refuge in silence. Jack sighed, sensing that he had made a wrong move. His early success with the boy had lulled him into feeling secure and letting his guard down. This was why he opted to leave negotiation to others most of the time, he didn't have the patience for it. Throwing caution to the wind seeing as he had already put his foot in it once, he ploughed right on to the question that burned brightest in his mind.

"Have you ever heard of the Goa'uld? Are the Angels the Goa'uld?"

Jack did not expect Kato to react as violently to that question as he did. He flicked his legs forward, planting them on the floor as if preparing to stand up, his hands found the edges of the bed and he dug his fingers in until his knuckles whitened with the effort. He was staring straight into Jacks face with wide eyes that glinted with anger.

"No," he said, with a certainty that didn't allow even Jack to be suspicious, "The Angels fought the Goa'uld and freed us."

"So the Angels are the native race on your planet?"

"Yes."

Sensing history and politics coming, Jack had to stop himself from looking around for Daniel to take over. He was almost thankful when the unmistakable sound of the gate activation siren interrupted his thought process. He frowned as he heard footsteps in the corridor outside. Clearly the activation was not from someone they knew.

"What does that mean?" Kato asked. He'd grown visibly tenser at the sound. Sirens were a universal indication that something wasn't right and that put him on edge. The last siren he'd heard had been as a direct result of his escape attempt, he hoped that this one had nothing to do with him.

"That means someone is trying to get through the gate," Jack turned to the door, "I'll be right back."

* * *

"What's going on?"

"Hello Sir," Carter was standing by the control panel, looking down at the gate room as it rapidly filled with troops, "Seems our guest lied to us about knowing about the stargate. Someone on that planet it trying to get through to us."

"Do we let them?" Jack wondered out loud. It wasn't his place to give the order and he knew that the General would arrive and make the final decision momentarily. With the iris still closed, he hoped that the people on the other side wouldn't try and gate through too quickly. He never had asked whether or not bodies impacting on the iris left a mess that someone had to clean up.

"Open the iris," came the Generals unmistakable voice from the door to his office. "I want to know who that boy is and if he is a threat and I think that we will get a better answer from whoever has decided to come this far to look for him."

"Yes Sir," Jack just about heard the operations officers answer as he followed in the wake of Hammond striding from the room. Teal'c and Daniel met them in the corridor on the way down to the gate room and it was SG-1s full compliment that arrived in the gate room just as shapes appeared through the event horizon.

Four men. They were all tall, stately with very pale skin that gave them an artificial look. Especially in contrast to the long dark robes they wore over loose dark green trousers tucked into calf high boots and long tunic style tops tied at the waist with black belts. They were unmistakably military, but also unmistakably political. The clothes made them look military, their bearing and haughty expressions made them look like politicians. And not the kind that anyone in SG1 liked dealing with.

After a moment that was almost a stand off one of the men smiled, "I assure you," he said dryly, grandly waving a hand at the troops that filled the room "We do not warrant such a welcome."

"Our visitors aren't normally friendly," said Jack, before General Hammond had a chance to speak and earning himself a deadly glare for his trouble.

"My name is General Hammond. I'm afraid we have to take these precautions, as Colonel O'Neil pointed out, we aren't used to friendly visitors."

"That's quite alright. My name is Captain Veran, I understand the need to protect ones planet from attack," he paused, "Especially as we share this universe with the Goa'uld."

Immediately the atmosphere in the room became more serious. The sentence was delivered deliberately and the implication of what that meant Kato was was very clear.

"Perhaps we should talk about this somewhere else," said Hammond, gesturing to the door.

* * *

The conference room had played host to many negotiations. It was no stranger to the face off between SG1 and various visiting dignitaries. The large table created a real gulf between the two parties and there was always an unpleasant pause to see who would speak first once everyone was seated and ready. Captain Veran broke the silence on this occassion.

"Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Captain Veran, I am a member of the central council of the Darsen government, responsible for security. These," he gestured to his companions, "Are my personal ministers. Now, if I may ask, who exactly are you?"

"My name is General Hammond. I am a General in the US Air Force and the head of the Stargate Programme here on planet Earth. This is Stargate Command from which we operate our Stargate. I assume, you are here about the young man we took from your planet?"

"Yes," Veran smiled, quite a nasty smile, "Why did you do that?"

"He asked for our help," said Jack, "We didn't know the situation on your world, we saw a possible threat and got the hell out of there."

"Unfortunately, rather than escaping a threat you brought the threat with you."

"What do you mean by that?" Hammond asked.

"The person you are holding here is a very dangerous creature who our authorities have been hunting for quite some time."

"Dangerous how?" said Daniel, hoping that his fears would not be realised.

"He is a Goa'uld creation. An experiment, an attempt to corrupt our people and return us to the slavery we fought so hard to escape. Do not be fooled by his innocent appearance, under his skin he hides modifications that could provide him with unimaginable powers," as he spoke Veran lost his composure. His voice rose, his pale cheeks tinged with colour and his blank eyes became dark.

Sam could not resist this potential insight into the new technology she had had so little time to study, "You know how the organism functions?"

Veran looked slightly surprised, "You know of it?"

"It showed up on our scans. He told us that he doesn't know what it is but that it keeps him alive. Is that true?"

"Certainly he would die without it. The exact details of how it works I do not know. Essentially, it takes a Darsen body and assimilates it, transforming it slowly into another being…"

"An Angel?" Jack interrupted.

"Yes. That is what they call themselves. Many thousands of years ago we were slaves on our planet. Ruled over by Goa'uld masters, engaged in hard labour and building structures to glorify the false Gods. The Angels were their foot soldiers. Hugely powerful beings who held the power of the Goa'uld within their very flesh. Over time, the Goa'uld took all they wanted and needed from the planet and retreated, leaving us in the hands of the Angels. Eventually we managed to overthrow them, without their masters they were disorganised and weakened. We have spent several hundreds of years, our entire history, attempting to retain our independence from them."

"And you think that Kato is another attempt by the Angels to enslave you?" Daniel said, sounding slightly incredulous.

"Kato was the son of one of our peoples greatest scientists. A hugely important man, at the very centre of our government. Just think. Had we not detected the deception the Angel's would have had an agent ideally placed to help them launch a new offensive against us."

"So is that why you tortured him?" asked Jack, casually.

"Excuse me?"

"He didn't beat himself up. He was hurt when we found him, how did he get like that?"

Veran frowned, "There is a lot of hostility towards the Angels on our planet. Our agents may have been over zealous when detaining him."

"Over zealous? He was half dead!"

"Colonel," Hammond snapped, "That is enough. I apologise Captain, for the Colonels rudeness."

"That's quite alright General," said Veran, with a gracious nod, "Now, allow me to be blunt. I must ask that you hand Kato over to us." He paused, as there was no immediate response, "immediately."


	5. Chapter 5

**Authors Note: **So...after a very very long time I've finally had the time to work on this again. Hopefully, I should get to finish it over the course of this summer!

Chapter Five

"Who the hell do they think they are?" Jack demanded angrily, slamming into General Hammond's office followed by the rest of SG1, "They can't just come in here demanding things from us."

"Colonel…"

"Did you notice how cagey he got when I asked him how the kid got hurt? We can't hand him over to them. They'll kill him!"

"Colonel, if you'd forgotten, if he is an agent of the Goa'uld," said General Hammond severely, "he could pose a serious danger to the safety of this base."

"According to them he is! Sir, I've spoken to that boy, he's not a Goa'uld."

"What makes you so sure? We have only his word against theirs and I'm not inclined to believe someone who might be a Goa'uld just because you tell me I should trust them."

"Sir, how many times have we visited planets were the government is the least trustworthy institution on the planet? At least let the boy answer to the accusations. Jacks right, we can't just hand him over." Carter's calm voice of reason cut through the argument like a knife.

General Hammond leaned back in his chair and watched Jack as he threw his hands up in the air and retreated from the desk a little. Sam kept one eye on him as she addressed the General.

"I know it sounds bad, and it looks bad, but it also doesn't sound or look right. I've been looking at that organism and there are no similarities between it and Goa'uld technology. It's far more advanced and far more organic than anything we've ever seen from them. I don't believe it's Goa'uld and if they're telling us that it is, then they're either lying or they don't know any better themselves. Either way, we need to find out more," she finished, her voice firm, both her eyes now focused on Hammond's face.

He considered her, his eyes darted to Jack and then wandered to Daniel, "What's your opinion Dr Jackson?" he asked. It had taken time, but Hammond had started to value Daniel's opinion. His cultural knowledge often led him to provide valuable insights into the motivations of the peoples they encountered which they might otherwise have neglected to take into account.

Daniel sighed and made a slight shrugging motion with his shoulders, "I didn't trust him. And, I'm not sure we can take sides based on their word alone."

Jack raised his eyebrows. Daniel did not generally see things in terms of taking sides, he was the one in the party most likely to start pointing out the validity in, or the value of an opposing forces point of view.

"What are you thinking?" he asked, knowing that something had to be bothering him about the scenario for him to be so willing to express a view that would lead, essentially, to them ignoring the laws of a civilisation.

"Remember who he said he was? Lord Rosiel, in charge of security, with his personal ministers. That was the most important military commander they've got, or so he tells us and they sent him through, to an unknown planet, which for all they know was the chosen refuge of what they're calling one of their most dangerous war criminals. What does that tell us?"

"Enlighten me," Jack said, with fake exasperation in his voice. He didn't really believe in making it too obvious to Daniel that his reasoning impressed him.

"Number one, it tells us they know about the gate, and I'd even go so far as to say it means they know about us specifically. They knew how to dial the gate and they knew what to dial. And that man," Daniel pointed an aggressive finger towards the gate room, "does not want the rest of his government to know what is going on here."

"Are you saying, Dr Jackson, that we are dealing with some kind of, rebel element, in their government?" Hammond asked gravely.

"Yes I think so. Or if he's not part of a rebel element, he's not exactly who he tells us he is."

There was a pause as they all digested this new angle. "Clever," Jack mumbled to himself. Hammond's frown was deepening.

"Colonel O'Neill, you have until the end of today to get me a good, solid reason why I shouldn't hand that boy over."

"What are you going to tell Rosiel?" Sam asked.

"Leave that to me," said Hammond, his face taking on an even more determined look than usual.

Jack was always amazed at their prisoner's extraordinary ability to sense when things in the base were not going their way. Kato was no exception. He was no longer sitting calmly on the bed but was pacing the room in an agitated manner, the odd wince was now the only sign of the injuries that had confined him to bed so recently. The eyes that looked up as the door opened were somehow older, darker, more calculating than they had been before. He was more awake, more aware, the vulnerable child Jack had spoken to before was now well and truly hidden. Kato scanned Jacks face, but quickly moved on to Daniel. Eyeing up the unknown quantity warily.

"We've had some visitors," Jack settled himself back on the chair, leaning back nonchalantly as he spoke, "Funnily enough, they were here looking for you." Jack watched closely for some response from Kato, verbal or otherwise, but there was none. He was totally composed, his face showing very little emotion, "A Lord Rosiel, seems to know you very well."

"I've met him," was the guarded response.

"He says you're a liar. He says that you're a Goa'uld experiment and a part of a plan to take over their government." Despite the fact that he was, almost, certain that this was untrue he knew that there wasn't much point in showing that his sympathies lay with Kato at this point. If he was wrong and the boy was a Goa'uld agent, then he would simply exploit that sympathy to gain their trust. It might seem harsh, but it made them less vulnerable to exploitation. It wouldn't be the first time; the SGC had learnt to repress its sympathy the hard way.

Kato almost chuckled. He certainly smiled, but it was a horrible smile. Jack got the impression that Kato was choosing to laugh, because otherwise he might have cried. He shook his head slowly, "I'm not Goa'uld. They haven't been on our planet in hundreds of years. There's just the Emberi and the Angels."

"Lord Rosiel says the Angels and the Goa'uld are the same thing."

"The Angels hated the Goa'uld. They disrupted the planets balance. I told you, the Angels fought the Goa'uld and freed us." Kato's tone was one of frustration. Jack couldn't decide if he was frustrated by the need to repeat himself or whether this was frustration born from many years of defending an uncommonly held belief.

"Our commander, General Hammond, doesn't believe you. He feels that the organism inside you is too similar to the control of a Goa'uld symbiote. If you could tell us more about it, how it got inside you, what it does, and why it does what it does we might be able to convince him that you're not a threat and convince him to let you stay here," said Daniel.

Kato had stopped pacing and was standing very still in one corner of the room. His hands were in tight fists at his side and his eyes had hardened, "I told you. I don't know how it works. I didn't ask for it to be put inside me."

"But it keeps you alive," Daniel pressed on with his questions; oblivious to the danger Jack could see brewing in the boys body language.

"Yes."

"So, under what circumstances did it become necessary for you to have it implanted in you? You must remember what happened to cause you such catastrophic injuries that something so drastic had to be done to you."

"Of course I remember. Does it matter what happened?"

"Of course it matters," said Jack.

"Why? I was dying. Why I was dying doesn't really affect who put this thing in me and it definitely doesn't affect why they put it in me. I was just a body. A body in the right place at the right time." Kato couldn't help getting angry. He was scared, tired and bewildered. It had been less than a day since he had found himself in the old woods, trying desperately to escape, but with each step his certainty had grown that he was finally going to die. His heart, which had beaten with mechanical regularity since the implantation had been fluttering, a sure sign he had though, that it was the end. Now, he stood on an alien world, talking to people who didn't understand concepts that to him were entirely fundamental and these people, seemed to be the people who would decide his fate. He felt helpless and that angered him. Suddenly, he had the humiliating urge to cry.

Daniel and Jack watched him shrink before their eyes. Almost as soon as Jack had scented danger on the air, it was going and the person in front of them seemed vulnerable again. Jack was not naïve however. Increasingly he was becoming aware that Kato's most dangerous feature was that he was so volatile and so much of an unknown quantity that it was impossible to predict what he was going to do one moment to the next. They still had very little idea what power the organism might give him, how strong it could really make him. Jack really didn't know how to proceed and Daniel also seemed slightly stumped.

Kato sighed and sat back down on the bunk, "I was hurt in an explosion. My father, is a scientist. Before I was hurt, I didn't know what he did, I only knew that he worked for the government and that he did very important things. That meant that we lived in the highest levels of the upper city, where all the government buildings were. I used to walk to school, right past the assembly building where the central council meet. When I was 14, I walked past there the same as usual when it, just, exploded," Kato looked up at them, an odd smile on his face, "I was killed."

"A terrorist attack," Jack said. A sort of confused understanding was coming to him. He didn't yet know where right and wrong lay in the situation, but he was starting to see the skeletal structure of the conflict that existed on the planet. He knew conflict and this one was starting to make sense. "The people who attacked the city, the Angels right? For some reason, they saved you."

Kato nodded.

"Why would they save you?" Daniel asked slowly, "no offence, but, what was special about you?"

"I don't know," he gave another strange smile, "like I said, I was just a body in the right place at the right time."

They all knew that that was a half-truth. Jack was certain that Kato knew exactly what was special about him, but wasn't about to tell them. What they had to decide was whether or not the lie was harmful and that, was difficult.

"So," Daniel had his arms folded and was speaking in the voice that always said that he was thinking hard, "the Angels mounted a terrorist attack on the government, you were," he hesitated over the word, "killed…but the Angels saved you. Lord Rosiel said that they wanted to do that because when you went back to your father you'd be ideally placed to help attack them again. I mean, tell me if I'm missing something but considering the fact that the Angels were attacking, that does kind of make sense."

Kato was struggling. He had reached the uncomfortable point where his own muscles were so exhausted that they had gone totally limp, his body was so totally drained that the organism was all that was supporting him. His injuries were nowhere near healed and his natural body was failing. He wanted the conversation to be over so he could rest, for it to be over he needed to convince these people to accept a historical account of his planet that even his own people, whose ancestors lived through it, didn't believe. He wasn't sure he could do that, but he had to try, because he had to get home.

Kato started to speak; his voice was low and rhythmic, as though he were reciting something, an old legend, from days gone by, and in essence, that is exactly what it was.

"When the Goa'uld first brought humans to our planet, they thought it was uninhabited. They didn't find the Angels, no one remembers how they hid themselves, but they did. The Angels left them alone at first, but the Goa'uld were hurting the planet, mining and things like that. That upset the Angels and they started to work against them. So the Goa'uld found out about the Angels and tried to wipe them out, but the Angels were far too powerful for them, they defeated them and the Goa'uld left and never came back. The Angels wanted to look after the people. They lived side by side and the Angels tried teaching the people, who started calling themselves the Emberi, how to live in harmony with the planet. But the people started to want the power and technology of the Goa'uld and the Angels. The Emberi civilisation grew and started ignoring the things the Angels taught them, the Angels tried to stop them but the Emberi were ready for them and they let loose a plague on the Angels. Most of the Angels died, nearly all that survived were left with horrible mutations that drove some of them insane. Their civilisation was devastated," Kato paused, Jack's face was unreadable, Daniel looked…sad, "What the Emberi didn't realise was that the Angels had been keeping them safe from more than just the Goa'uld. They had been keeping the Demons at bay as well. The Demons were like the Angels, but darker, they weren't as forgiving of the Emberi and they wanted to drive them away and take the planet for themselves.

Over the next few centuries the Emberi fought the demons, and over time, they stopped distinguishing between Angels and Demons. They hunted and killed them as one and the same. It started to be forgotten that, in the beginning, it had been the Angels who had freed the Emberi from the Goa'uld. They started to believe that the Angels were the ones who had enslaved them. As the Emberi became more and more advanced, their hunting became more and more effective until they had killed so many Angels and Demons that they were completely broken peoples. The few that were left hid in the woods, scavenging and fighting each other to survive. They stayed like that for a long time and the Emberi civilisation just kept growing and advancing. But, over time, small groups of survivors started to form. Tribes grew. They were getting strong and the government didn't want that. People were starting to forget how brutal things had been, partially because the government wanted them to forget and was making them forget. If the Angels and Demons grew strong again then all the government was trying to do would be undone. Lord Rosiel has made it his life work to wipe them all out, once and for all. But the Angels are fighting back."

Jack groaned inwardly. His suspicions were partially confirmed. It was as messy a political situation as you could imagine. It was impossible to be sure if the version of the planets history that Kato was telling them was the accurate one. The look in Kato's eye told him that it was certainly the version that he believed to be true. His voice had noticeably weakened as he spoke, he was swaying as he sat and Jack doubted if he even had the energy to lie anymore. Unfortunately that wasn't really enough. Jack knew very well that the foot soldiers of any movement often whole-heartedly believed whatever version of truth it was that they were fighting for. People rarely fought for what they believed to be lies.

Daniel was looking fascinated, "Do they call themselves Angels and Demons or were those the names your people gave them?"

Jack frowned at him, "That's not the important thing right now."

Daniel's expression changed to one of slight annoyance, "Yes, ok. But you know we should keep in mind that it could be very important to understanding our own religious history if we can establish the reason for the similarity in terminology…"

"Yes Dr Jackson, I will certainly keep it in mind," he turned his attention back to their young guest, "they're fighting back with terrorism," he pointed out. This was the issue that required clarity, the morality of the method of retaliation the Angels were utilising.

Kato gave a tiny, weary shrug, "you can call it that. But what choice do they have? The Emberi government won't even acknowledge that the Angels and Demons exist"

"Ones mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter," Daniel quoted with a shrug.

"Yeah, that's not gonna satisfy the General though."

Jack was frustrated. He'd come here to look for a concrete reason that he could give General Hammond that would convince him to support Kato against Rosiel. What he now had was the knowledge that, at the very least, Kato was the product of a terrorist's guilty conscience and at the most a member of a terrorist organisation. It was nowhere near as bad as being a Goa'uld, but it was not in the least helpful when it came to protecting him. Hammond would, more than likely, take the view that if it could be proved that the boy was in any way responsible for violating the peace of his world then he would have to be subject to any punishment their law allowed them to inflict. Jack did not quite understand himself why he was strongly opposed to that.

For a moment, they stood and sat in silence. Kato had finally given up on holding himself up and was leaning heavily against the wall. Jack was leaning forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees deep in thought. Daniel stood with his hands in his pocket watching them both.

Jack broke the silence and got to his feet with determination, "This isn't right," he said, he looked pointedly at Daniel, "Me and you are gonna find a way to make it right."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Several hours before Jack and Daniel's frustrating conversation with Kato had even begun, on the Emberi home world, a little demon girl was sitting in a tree watching some truly extraordinary things happen. Kurai often came to this secluded part of the forest when she needed to think or be alone. She came here entirely because no one else did. She was fiercely independent and hated anyone to see any kind of weakness in her, so when things started to get on top of her, she came here. Sometimes she cried, sometimes she ranted and raged and sometimes she just sat and allowed herself to think the dark thoughts she normally fought so hard to keep at bay. She did it here, because she felt secure that it was perfectly secluded.

From her favourite tree, she could just about see the strange stone ring that had intrigued her at first but now served as nothing more than a marker in the landscape. She had found it very much by accident. She had gone through a phase where, when she had needed to get away, she had simply started running and hadn't stopped until she couldn't physically move anymore. She would then have to spend hours wandering the woods helplessly lost until she could find her people again. It had been a difficult time for her, but it had had one benefit. She had found the stone ring. One day she had been running, her eyes clouded with tears, and had literally run straight into the device that stood in front of the ring. For months she had been draw back to it again and again. She had examined it in intimate detail, she had found out she could press the buttons on what she termed the control panel, but she couldn't make anything happen. So she had lost interest in the circle itself. However, the place was still important to her. So she came back again and again. She never told anyone about it because she didn't want her isolation disturbed.

When she visited that day, she suspected instantly that someone else had been there. The leaves that coated the control panel were disturbed. There were crushed plants and footprints and, most worryingly, she could smell blood. She found a small pool of it next to the control panel and when she looked closely, there were traces of blood on the panel itself. It was fresh she judged, not more than 24 hours old. At first, she had wanted to leave instantly. But after waiting a while, without hearing anything, she had climbed her tree as normal. She had examined its location more carefully this time. She was relatively sure that, while she could see the ring fairly well from her position, someone would have to look very long and hard before they would see her. She was high up, the leaves that surrounded her were very thick and her clothes blended well with the colours around her. So she stopped worrying and settled down to think. For several hours, she remained undisturbed.

When Kurai heard the rustling in the trees her heart started thumping and her mouth went dry. She could tell that whoever was approaching was still quite far away. She was scared but really, she was more intrigued than anything else. Slowly and carefully she moved into a comfortable position in which she was sure she could not be observed, but she could observe very well, and she waited.

She was expecting to see other Demons, or Angels, or a combination of both. She didn't know exactly how many different groups lived in the forests and in the hills and mountains that surrounded it but she knew there were quite a few. She had encountered several different groups in her time trekking the woods alone, some had been friendly, some not so much. As a rule it was wise to stick with your own people and be extremely wary of anyone you didn't know. However, the group of men who eventually strode out of the trees were certainly not a group of roaming Demons, and they weren't Angels either. Kurai recognised the uniforms they wore, everyone who lived in the woods would have. They were Emberi military uniforms. The squads of soldiers who patrolled the woods from time to time, looking for 'intruders' wore the same uniforms. When you saw uniforms like that you ran, you hid yourself and you hoped they wouldn't catch you. If they caught you, they would certainly kill you. Suddenly, Kurai felt a little sick.

There were five men. The tallest man with the longest hair was clearly in charge and he made Kurai's blood run cold just to look at him. Even so, she found that she couldn't take her eyes off him. She barely dared to breathe. As she watched, he entered a series of symbols on the control panel and then pressed the big red stone in the centre. She didn't expect anything to happen, she had tried to do it herself of course, so she was amazed when the stone ring actually came to life. It seemed so loud, as the ring turned it stopped at regular intervals, selecting some of the symbols inscribed around its edge and then, what looked like water exploded out of the ring before settling into a bright blue pool at its centre.

Kurai watched incredulously as, after waiting for a few minutes, the men walked straight into the pool. They didn't come out the other side, they seemed to simply vanish, and after a few moments, the pool vanished too. Kurai slowly released the breath she was holding in. She didn't really understand what she'd seen. It was probably some kind of transportation device she reasoned and those men had been transported to some other place. Where they might have been trying to get to that required them to use that device was what puzzled her. She knew the Emberi had a wide range of transportation methods at their disposal. She'd heard that the fastest ships could travel round the entire planet in under five minutes; they could make it to the next planet in less than half an hour and to the furthest away Emberi inhabited planet in an hour. So why, would they need to use this odd ring that was so inconveniently located for their travels?

Kurai was torn between fear and curiosity. She wanted to run away and forget what she'd seen but she also wanted, desperately, to understand it. As it often does, curiosity conquered and Kurai settled down to wait and see what else might happen.

Upon leaving Kato's cell, Jack had summoned his team to his office. He really could not understand why he was so determined that the boy should not be released to Lord Rosiel. The boy was difficult, uncooperative and, to be frank, now that he was awake and talking, rather unsympathetic. Lord Rosiel on the other hand not really been so drastically unreasonable. He had been imperious that was true, but nothing much worse than that. Yet Jack could not shake the feeling that he couldn't, with good conscience, hand over anyone to that man.

"What did you find out?" Sam asked as soon as they were settled, sitting or leaning in various places around the room. She was intrigued by Jack's summons. It was not that common for him to take such a deep personal interest in an individual they encountered on their missions. It was not unknown, but it was not common.

"Why are you not reporting your findings to General Hammond?" Teal'c asked, getting to the core of the matter in typical style.

"Jack," said Daniel, quite pointedly it must be said, "Doesn't feel like General Hammond will make the right decision based on our findings."

"Which are?" Sam prompted him.

Daniel briefly summarised what Kato had told them. Jack sat back in his chair and watched Sam and Teal'c digest the narrative, waiting for their thoughts. Sam was looking thoughtful, and as usual, it was impossible to tell what was going on in Teal'cs mind.

Sam spoke first, "Do we think that he has taken an active part in any kind of, violent, activity?"

"Its hard to say," said Daniel diplomatically.

"He got captured somehow," was Jack's more pessimistic response. By playing devils advocate, he was determined to test his resolution in all possible ways. He had to be sure that his instincts were correct and therefore every objection had to be explored.

"Well we can't use that to judge, I mean, how many times have we gotten ourselves captured when we've done nothing wrong," said Daniel pointedly.

"Point taken," Jack acknowledged.

"Not very helpful though," Daniel was looking thoughtful and started to pace the office with his arms crossed. They all knew that he would not speak until he had puzzled out whatever he was puzzling over, so they left him to it.

"He can't be punished, for being saved," said Sam, "that doesn't mean he deserves to be, tortured, like he clearly has been."

"Well exactly," Jack was glad that his team agreed with him, on that point at least.

"He could claim asylum here," Daniel said suddenly, "What's being done to him is persecution. He is being targeted because of his political and racial allegiances; the US government honours the right to asylum on those grounds."

Jack felt instantly elated, "Daniel, you are a genius."

"Wait, I'm not sure that we can make that apply to someone from another planet…" Sam was not convinced and Jack deflated a little at her objection.

"Well why not?" Daniel interrupted her, "It's something we really should have addressed more thoroughly before now. We've rescued people before and granted them what is, essentially, temporary asylum because their planets are under threat. Why not do the same thing for political reasons?"

"I'm not convinced General Hammonds going to go for it. It's going to put him in a difficult position. And more importantly, there's no guarantee that the Emberi are going to recognise our concept of asylum."

"We would have to present a concrete case to persuade General Hammond that the boy poses no threat but is in fact the one under threat. I do not believe we have sufficient information to do so," Teal'c said evenly.

"So lets go get some more information," said Daniel simply.

"You mean go back to the planet?" said Sam shrewdly, "And do what?"

"Find the Angels, speak to them, get their side of the story. Properly, not second hand Get a better feel for what's going on on that world. Their government probably won't speak to us, so it's probably our best chance at getting information."

Jack nodded, "Well I'm convinced. Now lets go convince General Hammond."

"Easier said than done," was Sam's, again, rather pessimistic response.

To say that General Hammond hated the idea of SG1 returning to the Emberi home world would be a drastic understatement. Despised was probably also too weak a word. Detested, was perhaps the closest you might get to an accurate term.

"No, no, no. A thousand times no," he said, once their findings and their plan had been outlined to him.

"Is that a no to everything, or is that just a very strong no to one thing?" asked Jack, as cheekily as he dared.

"It is a very strong no to any scheme that risks turning this into a major political incident. I have just spent over an hour convincing Lord Rosiel that he didn't need to take our guest with him right this instant and believe me, he took quite some convincing. I get the distinct impression that his government would strongly resent any kind of interference from us in their affairs. He practically told me that we weren't welcome to return until we were contacted again. And you want to go back there, without their knowledge, and contact these, Angels, to try and justify offering one teenage boy asylum on this world. Tell me again, how you can think that would be a good idea."

"Oh come on General, we've snuck onto plenty of worlds before. We're not exactly known for waiting for an invitation."

"O'Neill has a point General," Teal'c was only a member of the team because of one such unauthorised visit.

"I don't like that man," he said, clearly referring to Lord Rosiel, "I don't like the odds of you coming back alive."

Jack was surprised, "You think he's more dangerous than the Goa'uld?"

Hammond nodded, "that's just the feeling I get."

"Well that settles it for me then," said Daniel.

"How so Dr Jackson?"

"I definitely can't stand by while you hand a potentially innocent child over to him."

"Dr Jackson this is not just a question of morality. We can't justify interfering in their political situation, its just too volatile. They're upset already, if we upset them more, there is nothing stopping them taking military action against us. They are clearly not pacifists"

For a moment they all simply glared at each other. Each person in the room was trying to think of that one convincing argument that would turn the tide of opinion in their favour. Each person was not especially confident in it occurring, but they were all trying.

Finally, Sam spoke, "Do you doubt that we're capable of going undetected?" she asked with a certain curiosity.

Hammond looked grumpy, "I don't doubt your capability. What I do doubt is that you will maintain the desire to go undetected. I've seen enough of SG1s heroics to know that you're quite prepared to throw stealth out of the window for whatever mad reason enters your heads."

Jack grinned at Sam, and then looked at Hammond, "What if we promise to try our hardest to behave ourselves?"

Kurai hadn't noticed falling asleep. She'd often slept in the tree and felt perfectly safe there so several hours into her vigil sleep had just crept up on her. She had, though she didn't know it, slept through the return of the group of men she had seen pass through the stone ring earlier that day. That would have been extremely frustrating, except she was wakened by a second group of people arriving. Her eyes jerked open just in time to see the four people step out of the blue pool, the reappearance of which was what had probably woken her up this time.

She knew instantly that they were not the same group she had seen pass through first. This group, for one thing, contained a woman. She also didn't recognise the uniforms that they wore and there was no sign of the striking man from before. She looked at the uniforms again. They looked very odd to her, she didn't recognise their style at all. This group of people's presence here was even more unusual and interesting than the soldier's presence before. She watched them as they moved into the forest. She was not about to let go of this particular juicy mystery. As quietly as she could she climbed down from the tree and prepared to follow them.

They moved quietly, but she was quieter. She knew her way and used the failing light to her advantage. In a short time she was following them closely enough that at times, she could have reached out and touched them, had she wanted to. They didn't seem to be moving with any kind of direction, they weren't even moving in a particularly straight line. Kurai was quickly convinced that they were not comfortable here, they must come from the cities, but why would someone from the city be emerging from a stone ring in the centre of the old forest. That didn't make any sense. But if they weren't from the forest and they weren't from the cities, then where were they from? People didn't live anywhere else.

Kurai was so busy thinking about this particular problem that she stopped paying any real attention to what she was doing. As a result, she got a little careless and started to make small noises and she failed to notice that those she was pursuing were noticing those noises. So it came as more of a shock than it should have done when she was suddenly grabbed by the shoulders and held in a strong grip. It was such a shock that she barely even had a chance to struggle. She found herself staring straight into the face of one of the people she had been following. It was the large dark skinned man, who she now saw had a strange gold mark on his forehead.

"Well, well, what have we got here?" the speaker was the oldest of the group. He had a wicked smile, and he looked stern, but he didn't have the chilling quality she had seen in the other groups' leader. And, his question told her one other thing; they hadn't known on sight what she was. Anyone who was working for the Emberi would have known in an instant and she probably wouldn't have survived this long.

"Why are you following us?" asked the woman. She sounded inquisitive, but not angry.

Kurai didn't really know what to say. Why was she following them? There was no real reason, so she decided on honesty, "I was curious."

"Curious?" the woman repeated.

"I saw you come through that ring," Kurai jerked her head in its general direction, "you didn't look like you should be here."

The final member of the group was looking her up and down with interest, "Are you an Angel?" he asked.

Kurai gaped. She had never been taken for an Angel before, "No," she said.

To her surprise the man looked slightly disappointed with that answer. She'd never in her life seen anyone be disappointed to find that they weren't face to face with an Angel. She was even more surprised by the next question she was asked. The man who had spoken first addressed her again.

"You wouldn't happen to know where we could fine some would you?"

Well this was beyond bizarre, "What do you want with Angels?" she asked suspiciously, "And let go of me." She wriggled and, after a nod from the older man, she found herself released.

"It's complicated, but if you could tell us where we can find the Angels, we'd really appreciate it."

"I'm not telling you anything unless you tell me what you want with them," she said stubbornly, "Who are you?"

They were all exchanging looks, "What's your name kid?"

"Kurai."

"And if you're not an Angel what are you? Emberi?"

"I'm a Demon."

And now, she had the satisfaction of seeing shock on their faces instead of feeling it herself. Though, why they should be so shocked at that simple statement she wasn't sure. They were the ones asking to see Angels after all.

"Who are you?" she demanded, again, she felt she was owed some answers herself.

"Well my name is Daniel Jackson. This is Jack O'Neill," he pointed to the older man, "Sam Carter," here he indicated the woman, "and Teal'c. We are, explorers, from a planet called Earth. We were here earlier and we found someone. We're trying to help him and to help him, we need to," he smiled awkwardly, "We need to talk to some Angels."

Kurai felt quite pleased with herself, she'd known they didn't belong here, "Who did you find?" she asked, curiously, "And how could talking to Angels help him?"

The man called Daniel glanced at the one called Jack, as though he was asking for permission to speak. So Jack was in charge she deduced. He nodded very slightly and Daniel continued, "We met a young man called Kato. His involvement with the Angels has gotten him into some kind of trouble we don't quite understand."

And again Kurai was astonished; she could have sworn that she felt her jaw drop as what she had just heard resonated in her skull, "Kato?" she repeated, sure that she'd misheard.

"Yes, Kato," said Daniel slowly.

"Do you know him?" the woman asked eagerly.

"Yes," she was thinking fast, "Is he ok?"

"He's safe," said Jack, evasively.

Kurai made her decision quickly, "I can take you to some Angels who will be very interested to hear anything you know about Kato."

Setsuna would have to be very thankful to her for this.


	7. Chapter 7

The Emberi had killed Kurai's family, several years before. Back then she had been one of the lucky ones. She had lived with a large extended family. There had been her parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters and people she knew she was related to but not how she was related to them. There had been hundreds of them, living together in a more or less permanent settlement in the caves that riddled the hills on the southern edge of the forests. They had thought they were safe there; they were so far from any Emberi settlement they hadn't even thought that the Emberi knew they were there. They'd been wrong. They'd come one day and wiped out everyone they could find. Kurai was relatively sure she was the only one who'd survived. She'd hidden herself, under the bodies of her dead family and watched until the soldiers were gone.

She'd been alone for a while after that. Then she'd run into them, the people she was taking her find to now. They were a rag tag group. They were mainly Angles, with a few Demons and others mixed in. They were nearly all young. They were the children of the first generation; they had all been orphaned and abandoned over the years just as she had been. They'd taken her in without too much hesitation and, over the last couple of years, they had come to take the place of her dead family. Despite that, her days of being settled and feeling secure were over. They never stayed in one place very long these days. The patrols were getting more and more frequent and their only security was in movement

Now, she was jeopardizing that security by bringing four strangers to their current camp. She was sure that she was going to be very unpopular at first, but if these strangers really did hold the key to Kato's location that unpopularity would almost certainly evaporate. Well. That was what she hoped anyway.

Jack followed the little girl, Kurai she'd said her name was, with a certain amount of trepidation. For one thing, she was a Demon. No matter how much Daniel mumbled at them about how they shouldn't judge her by their own associations with the word, he couldn't help it. Demons are bad! There was probably a reason why the two terms were similar. He also didn't like the fact that they were following her blindly and the trees were closing in around them.

Daniel tripped, feet tangled in vines, "Is it much further?" he asked, tiredly, as he pulled himself to his feet.

Kurai shook her head. She was standing at the start of a slight slope. She beckoned them towards her, and once they'd joined her she pointed to a tree slightly ahead of them. At first they saw nothing, and then they realised that the tree had eyes. Rather, the person in the tree had eyes and was looking at them.

She waved at the figure, "Hi Noyz," she turned and waved at another tree, "Hi Boyz." A figure tumbled from that second tree, scrambled up the hill and out of sight. Kurai glanced back at her followers, "They'll know we're coming now."

"Does anyone else have a bad feeling about this?" Sam muttered.

"Yeah," Jack sighed, "these kids are definitely creepy. Keep your eyes open, we don't want to be walking into an ambush unprepared," he made sure his gun was accessible as they followed Kurai up the slope.

Jack was used to walking into native villages. He was used to being stared at with fear and apprehension. He quite enjoyed the bewildered looks that met his flippant greetings, on the other hand he didn't enjoy the way people backed away from them, but he was used to it. This wasn't really a village and the reaction was not what really he was used to.

They climbed the slope and found themselves looking down into one of the small hollows that they had discovered all over the forest floor. It was filled with the most rudimentary shelters, long wooden poles stuck in the ground spread over with a mixture of animal skins and scraps of plastic like sheets. Jack recognised the design from survival 101. There were small piles of wood dispersed throughout the shelters, ready for fires to be lit in the evening he assumed. There wasn't much else. There were some stacks of practical equipment, but there wasn't much of it and he could see no signs of personal belongings beyond the most basic clothing supplies. Even in the most nomadic of cultures each individual had some stock of personal belongings, these people clearly had nothing of the sort.

The people. They were staring with apprehension, but they were not shrinking back. They were standing, ready to greet their visitors. Jack could see that they were spread into a lose formation, ready to run at any moment, or fight, whichever the situation called for. They were an odd mixture really. They weren't really a coherent group in terms of appearance, some were tall, some were short, some were dark, some were light. Jack wondered idly if some of the disparity was due to there being two distinct racial groups, which was how he was thinking of Angels and Demons, but the split wasn't even enough. All physical considerations aside, the main thing Jack noticed about the people was that they had the eyes of people would survive at all costs. Their eyes told Jack that no matter how young some of them looked, they were not to be underestimated.

Kurai lead them towards a small group of young men who were standing together in the centre of the encampment. They were by far the most relaxed in the camp, there was no fear here.

"Kira," she addressed herself to a tall, dark haired man with eyes that looked ancient, but her focus was clearly on the slightly younger, blonde man who stood at his side, "These people know where Kato is."

The man called Kira looked at Jack with an intensity that almost made him uncomfortable. That was an unusual feeling for him. Somehow he didn't think that he was going to enjoy dealing with Angels.

"Who are you?" he asked, voice cold and suspicious, cloaked with indifference.

"Not Emberi," said a small boy with shockingly read hair and a striking tattoo of a dragon on one side of his face. Jack could have sworn that the eyes of the dragon were looking at him too.

"Obviously," this comment came from an arrogant looking blonde haired man whose eyes seemed to be primarily focused on Sam.

"We're explorers from a planet called Earth," said Daniel, trotting out the standard diplomatic line.

"There's a weird stone ring in the woods," Kurai put in, "they came through that."

"It's called the Stargate. It's part of a vast network. There are Stargates on planets in thousands of galaxies; we don't even know how many there are. We use them to explore planets and make contact with new peoples. We work for an organisation called the SGC, that's Stargate Command. My names Daniel Jackson, this is Jack O'Neill, Sam Carter and Teal'c. What do we call you?" Daniel was in his element and in full diplomacy mode.

"I'm Setsuna," said the blonde boy who was absorbing all of Kurai's attention, "that's Kira, Michael" he indicated the red head, "and Raphael." Raphael was still only watching Sam with a light smile on his face.

Raphael tore his eyes away from Sam, "and why, are you standing in our camp talking about Kato?" he asked.

"Well we came through the gate and we found Kato in the woods. He was hurt, badly hurt, we took him back to Earth with us to help him. An Emberi official followed us looking for him and they made some," he hesitated over the word,"accusations, about him. We don't want to believe those accusations, so we've come here, to find out the truth. We want to know what's really going on, what really happened to him."

The news was met with looks of polite interest, but general indifference. Jack knew that the calm indifference they were being confronted with was an act. The fact that Kurai had singled out Kira to tell him the news about Kato was a clear indication that a significant personal relationship existed between the two. Yet his face remained perfectly indifferent, through the news of his discovery and the news of his injury. That had to be an act. It was a good act though; nothing was giving them away save for the assumptions Jack was making based on basic human nature. Erm…Angel nature? He shook his head, semantics were frustrating.

"And what kind of truth can we help you with? What events are you so interested in verifying?" Raphael prompted again, his voice was lazy, Jack wasn't totally sure his indifference was feigned.

"We need to find out more about Angels. You _are_ Angels right?" Daniel finished a little nervously.

Michael laughed and shot a pointed look at Kira, one that he studiously ignored.

"To greater or lesser degrees," said Raphael diplomatically.

"How can you be an Angel, to a lesser degree?" Jack asked, making quotation marks in the air as he said lesser degree.

"Do we have to go into the whole explanation?" Michael groaned, "I'm bored already."

"An explanation would be appreciated, yeah" said Jack.

Setsuna was looking around, the light was failing and it was time for the fires to be lit, "Why don't we talk more about it over dinner?" he said pointedly.

Setsuna's words galvanised everyone into action. Jack was surprised. He hadn't though that the quiet boy would have had any authority. Clearly he did. The power had passed, roller coaster style through the group during the course of the conversation. Kira was the one Kurai had presented them to, Raphael was the spokesperson but Setsuna was the one who had brought the conversation to an end, a command that had been obeyed without question. Jack did not understand the distribution of power here, which would make negotiations more difficult.

Kurai had vanished and while the camps occupants set the fires and made the camp ready for the night SG1 were left alone. They took the opportunity to compare notes.

"Thoughts?" Jack asked, after they had settled themselves around the first fire that had been lit. He judged it would be the best place for them to stay out of the way. The young boy who they'd seen keeping watch in the tree had provided them with more animal skins to sit on before scurrying off to help elsewhere.

"I think this is going to end up being very complicated," said Daniel.

"Yeah, I hear ya. More or less Angels? What the hell does that mean?"

"Sir, have you noticed how they don't have any weapons," Sam put in quietly.

"Yeah, I noticed that. Most dangerous thing these kids have is some sticks."

"Or so it would appear," said Teal'c, remembering the worlds they encountered where the most primitive looking cultures had hidden reserves of amazing technology.

"I'm not sure how much we can trust to appearances," said Daniel, "After all these are presumably the people who implanted the organism in Kato. So they must have access to more technology than this. And they must have access to weapons so that they can hunt, they're not an agricultural people, and I doubt they survive just from foraging."

"You think they have a base somewhere?" Jack asked.

"It's a possibility," Sam shrugged, "Maybe that's where their children are, and the elderly."

"There aren't any children," said a voice, rather bleakly from behind them. Raphael had appeared from the shadows, he handed Sam a bowl filled with stew and settled himself cross-legged on the floor beside her. Michael, Setsuna and Kira followed him, supplying the rest of SG1 in similar fashion.

"Why aren't there any children?" Sam asked, a maternal sadness in her voice.

Raphael shrugged, "We're not sure. Since the plague, there haven't been any children. Intentional or unintentional side effect of the disease I suppose."

"The plague? Kato mentioned that the Emberi released a disease into the Angel population when they first tried to eliminate you. Is that still around? Didn't it die out generations ago?"

"Generations ago?" Michael repeated, he smiled bitterly, "That was our generation."

Sam looked confused, "But that would mean…"

Kira broke into the conversation, "Lets not get ahead of ourselves. First you tell us about Kato."

Sam was rebuffed but recovered to begin the narrative, "We found him in the woods not too far from the Stargate. He was very badly hurt. He refused to let us take him to the city for help so we took him back with us. We weren't sure he would make it, so there weren't many options," she smiled at Kira encouragingly having seen his scowl deepen, "he's ok though. Our doctors managed to save him, probably only thanks to the organism you implanted in him," no one could have missed all the sharp looks that darted between them at this point.

"And then we had a visitor. Someone called Lord Rosiel showed up and demanded him back because, apparently, he's an agent engineered by the Goa'uld, who he says are the same as Angels by the way, who is going to help enslave them. He wants his prisoner back. But here's the thing," Jack looked round at his audience, "Kato says that you're not Goa'uld. He says Rosiel is trying to wipe you out for no good reason. We need to know if that's true so that we can persuade our boss not to hand Kato over."

"We're not Goa'uld," the answer came from all directions so it was almost a chorus.

"What are you then?" Sam asked, "You said Angels…more or less…what does that mean?"

"Michael and I are Angels," said Raphael, "Pure and simple. Kira and Setsuna are," he hesitated over the word for a moment, "Angelic vessels. They are physically Emberi, but their consciousness is Angelic."

Sam looked fascinated, "How does that work?"

Raphael gestured towards Kira who rolled his eyes before starting his explanation, "An Angels life force creates and supports the physical body, the physical body doesn't support the life force. If the life force becomes too weak to support a body the body will disintegrate, but then the consciousness can transfer to another body. In my case, this body was dying, I saved the body but I couldn't save its mind," he pointed to Setsuna, "the Angel in him is dormant. It transferred into his body while he was still alive and well, therefore Setsuna is still in full control of his own body."

"You're living inside someone elses body?" There was slight disgust in Jacks voice, it didn't sound like Goa'uld possession, it was obviously different, but it sounded equally disturbing.

Kira nodded, "I spoke to Kira, the original Kira, before he died and he allowed me to take on his body. Part of him is still here, it survived and is a part of me now."

"And Kato…" Jack prompted.

"Angel's bodies are very strong. They have amazing powers of regeneration. The thing inside Kato is a part of an Angels body. When an Emberi body is dying, an Angel can implant a part of their own body into it and that part will take over from the Emberi body and heal it. Unfortunately it can't ever be taken back out again. It was an Angel called Uriel that implanted a part of himself into Kato," Raphael laughed lightly, "If this, Rosiel, is claiming that he did that to use Kato as some kind of agent then he must know something we don't. Uriel brought Kato to us and we haven't seen him since."

"So none of you had a part in the explosion that hurt him in the first place?" Daniel asked hopefully.

"No," Setsuna shook his head violently, "We don't want any part in any of the resistance movements or rebel groups that spring up. We just want to be left alone."

The statement was emphatic, and Jack wouldn't have questioned it, but he'd seen something. Raphael, had looked at Michael. It hadn't been more than a flicker of his eyes, but it was more emotion than Mr Nonchalant had shown since Jack had met him. That was enough to catch his attention. Michaels reaction, however, made him even more suspicious. He was staring straight ahead and was not paying any attention at all to Raphael, for all intense and purposes he had not noticed the look. However what made Jack suspicious was just how much he didn't notice, he stared straight ahead with an angelic (Ha!) expression on his face and didn't look at Raphael once for the next few minutes. Jack was positive. Setsuna might not have had anything to do with the incident, but Michael probably had.

When Jack tuned back into the conversation Sam was back at her original question, "So you're the original generation of Angels, how does that work? How old does that make you?"

"Old," said Michael with another bitter laugh.

Raphael glared at him, then sighed, "we don't really know. We were only young when the plague hit, none of us remember what the world was like before it. Some Angels died instantly, they were the lucky ones really, many more were driven insane. I remember them. Angels back then were extremely powerful; they controlled the elements and were masters of a strange sort of energy that could do a lot of good things but could also cause horrific damage to anything it touched. As the Angels went insane they lost control of that power, it tore them and everyone around them apart. Those who didn't die and who weren't driven insane were ill for," he shrugged carelessly, "quite possibly hundreds of years. There is a huge gap in all our memories, when we recovered the Emberi were established all over the planet and we weren't children anymore."

"Or we didn't have bodies anymore," Kira chipped in.

"You don't remember anything about what your civilisation was like before the plague?" Daniel asked with evident disappointment.

"There are some Angels left who were mature when the plague hit and we assume still hold all the knowledge we once had, but they're not very talkative," Raphael nodded at Setusna, "One of them is in him. But she's not said a word since she introduced herself and vanished."

"And the Demons?" Daniel asked, having been reminded off the distinction as Kurai crawled into the light and curled up next to Setsuna.

"The plague didn't affect them in the same way. Their lives are shorter, their bodies weaker. The plague killed them but it didn't affect their minds the way it affected ours," Raphael just about managed not to sound resentful.

"So, you don't know what happened in the original conflicts between your people, the Goa'uld and the Emberi?" Jack was frustrated. It was as though every possible avenue of information a door was slammed in their faces. This planets history was deciededly opaque.

"We know that this is our planet," said Michael passionately, "we know that the Goa'uld brought the Emberi here. We know that we fought them. We know that the Emberi attacked us."

"But how do you know that if you have no memory of that time?" Daniel asked carefully.

"They know it because we know it," said Kurai dreamily from her curled up position, "The Demons watched the war from afar, when the Angels were defeated we rose up against the Emberi, to save ourselves. But we couldn't. They slaughtered us just as they slaughtered the Angels," she raised her head and the fire shone in her eyes, "The Demons have never forgotten that."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Kurais statement had had the distinct sound of truth to it. In its wake, Jack had felt confident in granting Kira's request to be reunited with Kato. After some wrangling it had been decided that, in the morning, Kira and Raphael would accompany them back to Earth. Their main hope was to persuade General Hammond that it was a better idea to release Kato to them than to release Kato to Rosiel. Once this had been decided, the camp readied itself for sleep.

As silence fell through the camp, SG1 sat together under the shelter they had been given to dissect everything they'd heard.

"I don't think these people are part of any kind of conspiracy against the Emberi," said Daniel emphatically.

Sam nodded in agreement.

Jack shook his head slightly, "I think you're right about most of them. I'm not so sure about Michael."

"Michael?" asked Sam in surprise.

"Yeah," Jack poked at the dying fire in front of the shelter with a stick, "When you asked about the explosion that hurt Kato, Raphael couldn't help looking at him." Jack emphasised the word looking with a significant look of his own.

"We can't blame the group for his individual actions if he was involved," said Daniel diplomatically.

"No, we can't," Jack agreed, "But we can keep an eye on him."

"Perhaps it is a good thing that he will not be accompanying us tomorrow," said Teal'c levelly.

General Hammond had never quite managed to eliminate the sense of unease that came with waiting for his teams to return. That unease was nearly always double when the team he was waiting for was SG1. In this case, it was amplified again because they had already brought him trouble. He was not sitting in his office awaiting a new difficulty, he was sitting in his office expecting SG1 to resolve an existing conflict. Hammond knew in his heart of hearts that conflict resolution was not where SG1's strengths lay. They were certainly capable of it, but the resolutions were hard won and always far more difficult and complex than they needed to be.

Hammond grew tired of sitting in his office pretending to work and headed into the control room. The control technicians were all used to his ways and greeted him with knowing smiles. He didn't mind, though it was technically insubordination, he worked too closely with these men and women and had shared too many dangerous situations with them to always stand upon ceremony. He thought it mildly insulting to them to deny them the benefits of the closeness that was the inevitable result of that level of shared experience.

He stood and stared out into the gate room, wondering idly what precisely SG1 were doing at that moment. As sometimes happened, with perfect timing, his questions were about to be answered. Someone was dialling the gate.

"SG1?" he asked quickly and received a reply in the affirmative. He remained in the control room, as he wasn't expecting anyone but SG1 to step through the event horizon. There was no need for him to greet them personally. He should have known it was dangerous to make those kinds of assumptions. SG1 were not alone, they had brought two more people with them. General Hammond had learnt to be thankful for small mercies, so he told himself that at least these two looked uninjured.

Hammond pressed the intercom, "Colonel O'Neill, who are these people?" he asked, a little peevishly it must be said.

"Friends of Kato's, permission to take them to the briefing room?" was the prompt reply, accompanied by Jack's ever knowing smile.

Hammond sighed, "Meet me there."

He still held a vague hope that perhaps SG1 were bringing him some kind of resolution. Or perhaps an answer or two, he'd take anything along those lines at this point.

Hammond reached the briefing room before SG1 and settled himself into his seat so that he could greet the newest arrivals with the dignity becoming to his station. That and he often felt it was best to be sitting down when speaking to SG1, it made receiving their news safer. SG1 entered and Hammond assessed the look of their new guests. They were both tall, though not quite as tall as Rosiel and his men. One was light haired, the other dark while their clothes fell into the dirty but practical category. Hammond was glad to note that they were both definitely adults, and, while neither of them looked exactly friendly they didn't have the threatening aura that Rosiel had.

"An introduction, please," said General Hammond, still a little snappishly.

"This is Raphael," Jack indicated the blonde haired man, "and this is Kira. They're Angels," he decided to leave the complex explanation of what Kira really was for another time and was glad when Kira made no move to correct him.

"And you two know our young patient?" Hammond asked.

"He's a part of our group," Kira acknowledged.

"You were the ones who saved him?"

"No apparently that was a different Angel. This group had nothing to do with the situation in which Kato was hurt," said Daniel.

"We'd like to see him please," said Raphael calmly, "he's been lost for a long time."

Hammond met his eyes and considered. Raphael's face was impassive; he sat with his hands neatly folded in front of him in a posture that was decidedly casual. He wasn't betraying any emotion. He looked at Kira. He was trying to be equally impassive, but he was less successful, he looked worried. It was a subtle look but it was there, a rarity in the briefing room where all emotions were generally kept carefully under wraps. It was the most honest look he'd seen in a while and it made the decision for him.

"Of course, I'm sure he'll be eager to see you too. Colonel, I'll leave it to you. Then I think we'd better all have a proper conversation about what we're going to do next."

"Yes Sir. Daniel, you're with us."

Sam and Teal'c understood from that statement that they were not required to attend this particular encounter and excused themselves, leaving Jack and Daniel, and the standard armed escort, to take Kira and Raphael to Kato.

Kato was not feeling good. He had been in the cell for about two days he reckoned. For the last day and a half or so he had seen no one except the guard who had come in to bring him food. His visits were primarily what Kato was judging the passage of time by. He'd picked at the food but it all tasted strange and he had no appetite. He just wanted to know what was going to happen to him. If these people decided to hand him over to Rosiel he knew what kind of pain and suffering he was in for and at times, he felt almost crippled by the fear of returning to that agony. At other times, he tortured himself with thoughts of the uncertainty he faced if he was forced to remain on this strange new planet. Sometimes, he wasn't entirely sure which one would be worse.

He was lying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling trying to focus on anything but his fears when the door opened and the last person he expected to see walked through the door. It was Kira. Kato didn't really think about it, he didn't have a chance to, he jumped to his feet and threw himself at Kira, hugging him as tightly as he could. For once, Kira tolerated the show of affection and Kato was almost sure that he felt a small squeeze in return. Then Kira returned to true form and pushed him away, but not as roughly as normal.

"Where the hell have you been you idiot?" he said crossly, holding him at arm's length and scrutinising him critically.

Kato grinned and then spotted Raphael standing with Jack and Daniel in the doorway. His surprise and shock intensified, he was completely baffled by this turn of events. There were far too many questions to ask, so he just basked in his relief and waited to see how things would progress. Raphael was smiling at him in his lazy way and even Jack looked pleased. Raphael stepped forward and squeezed his shoulder. That was as affectionate as Raphael got if you weren't a woman. He was casting another experienced eye over him.

"You look terrible," he said critically.

"I'm alive," Kato's voice came out slightly hoarsely and he coughed then shrugged, "just about."

Kira was frowning; he was not in the mood for flippancy. Seeing Kato's pale face, made gaunt with pain had added anger to the worry he'd been feeling and he had gone long enough without answers.

Kato smiled at him weakly and apologetically. "I'm fine," he said, "but," he hesitated, and glanced uncertainly at Jack before switching into the Angels language, "there's some things I have to tell you. About Rosiel."

Raphael raised his eyebrows, Kira was still frowning and Jack and Daniel were looking backwards and forwards between them with slight bemusement.

"I'd really appreciate it if we could keep this conversation in English," said Jack, "thanks."

Kato, Kira and Raphael were also exchanging looks and for a few moments the scene was at something of a stand-off. Jack had the feeling that a silent debate was going on between the three of them. Jack could guess what facts were being debated. Here was Kato, alive and recovering just as SG1 had promised them. At this point, SG1 were looking pretty good in their eyes. So the question was, how much further could they be trusted? Did the Angels dare to involve SG1 in their affairs any further, or, now that they had Kato, should they close the doors on communication? Jack wondered what the conclusion would be. He wasn't arrogant enough to think that they needed saving or that SG1's intervention would necessarily be a good thing for these people. But he did hold by the old saying that a problem shared is a problem halved. And he was certain that the Angels had problems that could do with halving.

After a few moments Kira shrugged and looked away as though he had lost the argument while Raphael rolled his eyes, "You can tell all of us what it is," he turned towards Jack, with a knowing smile, "that is if we're allowed to take him out of his, cell."

Daniel looked embarrassed at the direct reference to the fact that they had clearly been treating Kato as anything but a guest, but Jack retained his composure, "Kid can throw a decent punch," he said, unapologetically.

That made Kira laugh and shove Kato's shoulder playfully, "you're a complete idiot," he told him scathingly, but the note of affection in his voice meant that Kato knew that for once, he didn't really mean it.

"Don't worry," said Raphael lightly, "We won't hold locking him up against you. It's not an uncommon urge."

Daniel smiled in relief. This could have been a potential diplomatic sticking point, "Shall we get back to the General?" he suggested, in the same tone one might suggest sitting down to eat at a dinner party.

General Hammond had barely had the opportunity to move from the briefing room when he was rejoined by SG1 and their guests. He had requested Dr Frasier join them so that they could have an expert medical perspective on a conversation he was sure would include some fairly complex biological discussion. He liked to have the means of explanation on hand. It made things easier for a man who wasn't really all that scientifically minded.

She was walking a little stiffly as she came in and Hammond noted that Kato had the grace to look a little guilty. He looked studiously at the table and was doing his best to avoid everyone's eyes.

"So Kato," said Jack, "what secrets have you been hanging onto?"

"Yes," Raphael fixed Kato with a penetrating stare, "What do you need to tell us about Rosiel?"

"I think he's an Angel," was the sufficiently startling response.

Raphael raised his eyebrows, "Really?" he said, with intense scepticism in his voice.

Kato nodded, "I've been around enough Angels to know when I'm talking to one."

"How could an Angel be at that level of government without anyone noticing? He's a public figure, the Emberi would know," said Sam, in a tone of equal disbelief.

"Would they?" Kato shot back instantly, "I grew up Emberi and I barely even knew what an Angel was until I met one. I'm telling you, he's an Angel."

"Ok, say he is an Angel," said Daniel diplomatically, "Why would he want to be head of the branch of government dedicated to eliminating you?"

Kato shrugged, "I think its got something to do with the things in the woods. And with something called The Cradle."

"Things in the woods?" asked Sam curiously.

"About a year or so ago we started to hear rumours of new things living in the forest," said Kira, "There are small groups of Angels and Demons living the same kind of nomadic life we do all over. We don't interact too much, there can be conflict over resources if groups get too big or live too close to each other and some groups are more…militant, than others. But as a general rule, we keep to ourselves and it's a relatively safe life."

"Unless the soldiers catch you," said Raphael grimly.

"Yes," Kira agreed, "but the soldiers are tidy. They kill quick and they take the bodies with them. There's never a lot of blood left, normally the only reason you know a groups been caught is that you find their camp empty or their stuff abandoned somewhere. But in the last year bodies have been turning up. They've been, torn to shreds. Its not animals. It can't be. No one who has grown up in the forest is going to be caught out by any of the animals that live there. And if they are it would be a one off and none of us would know about it. But everyone is finding these bodies. Every group we know of has lost someone or found a body. And we're hearing about it from other groups and no one knows who or what is doing it."

"Are you sure its not another group turning against the others?" asked General Hammond.

"Or some rogue soldiers," said Daniel pointedly.

"We thought that at first," said Raphael, "We thought all the other groups were a little hysterical, with their stories of noises in the night, things lurking in the woods and people disappearing. Then we started hearing them. And then Kato disappeared."

"I think its time we heard that story," said Kira.

Kato looked momentarily uncomfortable, he obviously didn't really want to talk about his personal experience, but there was no comfort for him at that table. He shrugged and after a moment composing himself, adopted a postured of feigned indifference. It was clearly a tactic of his Jack thought, having seen it several times already.

"I was out scouting for a new place for us to set up camp. I practically walked into the group of soldiers, it was like they were waiting for me," he shrugged, "I don't know if they were but it seemed like it. I didn't stand a chance; they knocked me out with something. They took me to the city, I knew it was the city but it wasn't any part of it I'd ever seen before. They kept me drugged up most of the time. I knew I wasn't the only person there. I knew they were doing some kind of experiments because every time I was a little bit awake I could hear them talking about whether or not what they were doing was working and they kept asking each other whether 'this one would be suitable for The Cradle.' And they knew what was in me and they knew how it worked and they were always talking about how what they were doing would interact with it."

"What were they doing?" asked Sam, scientific curiosity piqued.

Kato shook his head, "I don't know. I think the organism in me made whatever drugs they were using less effective. One night I woke up and I was totally awake. Something must have gone wrong, someone made a mistake because there were huge, gashes, in my stomach and I was bleeding. There were all of these things growing into me, but when I woke up they all pulled back but they left holes behind. I didn't know how to get out and I found my way into what I think was The Cradle."

"And what is The Cradle?" Kira prompted, as Kato's voice faltered a little.

Kato shrugged again, "I don't know. It was a kind of tank, in a dark room and I didn't get a good look at it before Rosiel came in."

"And he saw you there and he knows you saw it and that's why he wants you back so badly," Jack saw the pieces falling slowly into the complex jigsaw, "makes a lot more sense now."

Raphael was a step further, "you think whatever Rosiel is doing to the Angels and Demons he's taking from the forests is what's creating the things that are in the woods."

Kato nodded. Nearly everyone at the table was frowning.

"Do you have any idea what he might be doing?" Sam asked, looking at Kira and Raphael expectantly.

"None," Raphael thought for a moment, "If it was just Kato I'd say he was looking for techn-"

"Angelic powers," said Kira suddenly, breaking into the conversation and leaving silence in his wake.

"Pardon?" Jack asked.

"What if Rosiel's trying to unlock the Angel's powers," said Kira simply.

Raphael smiled slowly, "of course," he said softly, "he wants to make us great again."

Jack looked at him sharply, unsettled by the particular choice of wording. Raphael noticed and laughed, a softer version of his normal condescending one.

"We were once great, there's nothing sinister about wanting to be great again. No matter how much I might sympathise with the desire to regain the powers we lost to the plague, if that is actually what he's trying to do, I certainly don't condone his methods."

"Once a person has possessed power, it will ever be a temptation should it be lost in the future," said Teal'c knowingly. Everyone knew that he was speaking from experience. He was once the First Prime of a powerful system lord, initially; being a member of SG-1 must have been quite a step down.

"But that's all speculation right, we don't know what he's doing or why," said Daniel, eager for specifics.

Jack looked at General Hammond, "permission to go investigating?"


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Rosiel stood in front of the tank and watched the vague shapes that swam through the darkness. There wasn't any real reason to keep the room in such gloom, but he had found that his workers found the tanks occupants a little unsettling. He was not generally much inclined towards humouring the weaknesses of his underlings, however these were not just any underlings and he had grudgingly acknowledged that it might be helpful to keep them happy. It had taken him a long time to amass a force of scientists with the specific skills he required for this project, he didn't want any of them to abandon the project just for the sake of keeping the lights dimmed.

One of the things in the tank swam suddenly forward toward the glass, striking at it as though it was trying to escape. Rosiel smiled to himself. He did not share his workers reservations. He felt an odd attraction to these things. The door to the tank room swung open as a worker came in on some business. The opening of the door wafted in a low moaning sound, obviously the sound of someone in pain. Rosiel frowned in annoyance. Part of him felt like striding through into the next room and berating its occupants. Did they not know what he was trying to do for them? Did they not understand that they were part of an essential evolutionary process? If he was not required to orchestrate things Rosiel would have gladly offered himself up for this kind of advancement. In fact, once the procedure had been perfected he would not hesitate to perform it on himself.

The door swung open again, but this time the man who entered approached Rosiel directly. He was one of the cleverest men on the team and as a consequence had become one of Rosiel's closest collaborators. Despite this, Rosiel was not entirely sure that he liked the man. He had a fawning nature which did not appeal. His eagerness to please Rosiel and ingratiate himself with him was quite sickening. He waited at a respectful distance, waiting to be acknowledged. Rosiel ignored him for a little longer before turning his head to acknowledge the man's presence.

"We're making good progress," he said, eagerly.

Rosiel raised his eyebrows, "any survivors yet?"

The eager smile faded slightly, "the rejection is not as…violent…as it has been."

"Oh?"

"We have managed to revive the rejected specimen."

Now that was positive news. It was certainly an improvement on the initial attempts. He believed the word that had been used in the notes was 'disintegration'. Rosiel dismissed his underling with a wave of his hand. If the specimens were now surviving the ordeal, that meant they had made significant progress in the suppression of the hosts protective systems. He was presented from total optimism by the knowledge that somewhere, on another world, there was sitting a young man who could bring the whole thing crashing down. If he had the common sense to tell the right people what he knew.

"No. Absolutely not. No. Under no circumstances. No," General Hammond wanted to make absolutely sure that his denial of permission was unmistakable.

"I haven't suggested anything yet!"

The daggers in Hammonds glare were a very short distance from being literal, "You are not going anywhere near that city."

"With all due respect General," said Daniel, clearly indicating that he didn't think there was very much respect due, "How else are we going to establish what's going on?"

"I'm not sure that we need to," Hammond shot back, rather more aggressively than he intended. A very pregnant pause followed the pronouncement. Kira, Kato and Raphael exchanged the kind of awkward glances usually reserved for guests at dinner parties when their hosts are bickering a little too seriously.

"Colonel O'Neill," Raphael started in his most official tone, "there is no expectation on our part that your people do any more to help us than you already have. We're extremely grateful to you for helping Kato, all we ask is that you return him to us and…" his officious language failed him, "and we'll go," he finished lamely. He looked to Kira for confirmation.

Kira nodded his agreement, "we can take care of ourselves," he smiled slightly, "we are angels after all."

The attempt at a united front was only let down slightly by the fact that Kato was completely unconvinced by what his friends were saying. He looked decidedly anxious. It was hard to miss. It was also quite hard to miss the fact that Kira was obviously determined not to meet Kato's eyes. Jack saw the anxiety in Kato's eyes and, though he wouldn't really like to admit it, it upset him. They had already gone to such lengths to protect him that it seemed sheer madness to just let him walk straight back into danger. He only had to glance round his team once to realise that they had similar feelings to his.

"That's very noble of you," said Daniel, earning himself a reproachful look from General Hammond, "but I for one can't walk away from this. If Rosiel is an Angel and if he is trying to unlock some kind of ancient divine power, then we could be walking away from a situation that could turn to genocide."

"It is not our concern," said Hammond, but a little more weakly now.

"At the very least we should make contact with the Emberi government and make them aware of what could be happening on their world," Daniel insisted.

"Yeah!" Jack added his emphatic endorsement of Daniels suggestion. Daniel might not be looking any further than diplomatic relations, but Jack was well aware that if Daniel were allowed back…well…once they were there General Hammond would have very little control of what they actually did there. General Hammond well knew this and he frowned. Unfortunately, Daniel had a good point and Hammond was not sure that he could knowingly walk away from what could turn to genocide and so, he gave very reluctant consent for a diplomatic mission to make official contact with the Emberi government.

Raphael made it very clear that his people wanted no part in any kind of official communication with the government. They did not even want to pass through the gate with SG1 if that was their intention. Jack had understood that. Just as Raphael and Kira had understood the significance of his asking whether or not Kato might still remember the layout of the city. 'So that we have some idea of what we're walking into' he had added, to make it sound as though he was asking for information on the layout of the government offices or what not. Kato had gone slightly pale at the question, but had nodded with a reassuring amount of certainty. Raphael had approached the exchange with neutrality. Kira was pissed off.

* * *

The first thing Kira said as they were picking themselves off the ground having been flung through the gate was, "no."

There was a strange sense of déjà vu as Kira did an astounding impression of General Hammond.

"There is no way they're taking Kato back in there," he said stubbornly, brushing leaves off his clothes before pulling a tired Kato to his feet.

"I'm not sure we have a lot of choice," said Raphael mildly, leading the way back into the dense trees where they quickly lost sight of the gate.

"We don't have to do anything. We have a choice," he said stubbornly, still pulling Kato along by his arm.

"You mean I have a choice," said Kato a little peevishly, trying to extract his arm from Kira's grip.

"No!" Kira growled.

He sounded so menacing that Kato was temporarily silenced and let himself be pulled along. He almost wished that Kira and Raphael hadn't collected him. His little cell had been far more peaceful than this.

"It's my life," he managed to say, once the grip on his arm had slackened to be a little less vice like.

Kira stopped dead and spun round to face Kato. Kato stood in front of him with a sullen scowl on his face, glaring defiantly at him. Kira shook his head speechless and awkward, "We were worried," he said, with heavy emphasis.

"So?" Kato demanded.

Kira was not going to be forced into any more emotional revelation than he had already given and simply glared. Raphael rolled his eyes. He found the general emotional incompetence around him seriously frustrating. He might not be overly communicative of his own emotions, but he did at least recognise them, and recognise those of others as well. Ignoring them wasn't the same as not seeing them.

"He doesn't want to spend more time worrying about you," he said, voice tinged with irritation, "none of us do."

Kato retained his stubborn look, "I'm sorry you were worried," he said, not sounding apologetic at all, "but they're not going to get in and out of there without me. They need a guide."

Kira looked ready to kill. Kira did not have many strong attachments. Before Kato had shown up it had really only been Setsuna who motivated any kind of serious emotional response from him. Yet while his attachments were few, they were certainly intense. There had been a handful of incidents where Kato and Setsuna had had disputes with other members of the group. Whoever had a hand in starting it, Kira was always the one who finished it. If he perceived a threat against those he cared about then his anger was nigh on unstoppable. During Kato's absence there had been moments where the only thing stopping Kira marching to the City to look for him the consequences be damned was placing Setsuna in his war path. Right now, Kira was being seriously tested. All he wanted to do was protect Kato, but unfortunately the thing that was endangering Kato was Kato himself. Kira clearly didn't know who or what he should be hitting.

Raphael's own interests and loyalties were being tested at that same moment. There was someone who he cared a great deal about who was equally well placed to guide SG1 into the city. However, revealing that fact would put that person in a situation far more complicated than simply volunteering him to walk straight into the lion's den. He was relatively sure that that would actually be the least of his worries. He sighed and, with the sincere hope that he would be forgiven, spoke up.

"You're not the only person who knows how to get into the city," he said, carefully.

* * *

SG1 (plus diplomatic party) had followed their Angelic guests only an hour or two later. There was tension in the air and everyone was slightly on edge. Even those people attached to Daniel's diplomatic group who had no idea what was being planned could sense that something was not quite right. Jack was relatively sure that Hammond had included these people in the group in an attempt to curb their activities, but it wasn't going to work. They would be safe in the City with Daniel, besides, Jack had faith they could take care of themselves, they were military after all. The next few hours relied on planning, team work and flawless cooperation between two groups of people who had never worked together before. An operation of this type should have at least a day of careful planning and organising. They didn't have that. In fact, the operation was already in motion and they hadn't even done any planning yet. Never a dull day when you're a member of SG1 thought Jack with a chuckle.

Jack pulled Daniel aside as the diplomatic party organised their baggage (he did not understand why diplomatic parties required baggage). "You know what you're doing?" he asked quietly, with an affected casual air.

Daniel nodded, "I'm not worried about what we're doing; I'm worried about what you're doing."

"We're not doing anything Daniel."

"Uh huh."

"Just gonna take a little reconnaissance mission, make sure the coast is clear, make sure it's all diplomacy safe," Jack said loudly, for the benefit of those around them, but winked at Daniel knowingly. Daniel had his famous, you'd better come back in one piece look on his face, before turning away and moving his group out. Some of them looked curiously as Jack, Sam and Teal'c stayed behind but they didn't comment. They knew better than to comment. None of them would be writing reports at the end of it, it wasn't their necks on the line, they were only following orders after all.

Jack hoped that the understanding nod he had received from Raphael when he had subtly asked to meet at the Stargate had actually meant that he understood. Otherwise the whole endeavour would fall at the first hurdle. The three of them stood in silence, listening tensely for anyone's approach. They shouldn't have worried. Kurai appeared briefly at the edge of the trees behind the gate, she waved to them before vanishing as quickly as she'd appeared.

"Raphael didn't think staying too close to the clearing was a good idea," she said briefly when they reached her, "come on."

It was the first time they were travelling in this direction, directly away from the City and there was a subtle difference to the woodland in this direction. The trees were darker, it seemed a little colder and there were thick spiny plants that grabbed at their feet as they walked.

"We're being a lot more careful about where we camp at the moment," Kurai explained, a little apologetically as Sam was plucking a thorn from her leg.

"Are these poisonous?" she asked, rubbing her leg vigorously as an oddly cold sensation spread up it from the wound.

Kurai considered for a second, and then shook her head. It did not inspire confidence. Sam continued to periodically rub her leg trying her best to analyse whether the cold feeling was increasing or diminishing. She didn't have time to dwell on it for too long before they reached the groups new encampment.

Jack knew instantly that something had changed since they had last met. There was an eerie silence enveloping the camp and all eyes, though not always directly, were focused on Kato and Michael. Kato stood in the centre of the camp, between Kira and Setsuna. His face was slightly flushed which made a change from his usual paleness and he looked a little unfocused. Michael on the other hand was sitting on the fallen tree that had created a scar like clearing in the forest for them to make camp in. His pose was superficially casual, his elbows resting on his knees and his head resting on his clasped hands. His face on the other hand was anything but casual. He was staring at Kato with an intensity that was almost painful. Kato was not looking at Michael, and his determination not to look at him was almost as intense.

SG1 approached warily, they were met with silence.

"We ok?" Jack asked, eyes darting from face to face.

"There have been some," Kira hesitated, "revelations."

"Revelations?" Sam asked.

"Well," Kato's voice sounded a little odd when he spoke, "you won't need my help to get into the city anymore."

"Why?" Jack prompted, dragging the word out as much as he could.

Kato indicated Michael with his head, "he'll take you instead."

Jack felt the uncomfortable rush of suspicions confirmed, "will he now."

"He's been there before. To do something a lot more destructive than just look around," said Kira in a voice that was so full of anger and disappointment it hurt to hear it, even if you knew you weren't its target.

It didn't really need to be said out loud. It was clear that Michael's last outing to the City had more than likely coincided with the day of Kato's injury. It was equally obvious that the previously mentioned Uriel who had deposited a part of himself in Kato must have had a hand in what had gone on that day. Clearly that revelation had not gone down well. Jack was quite sure that what he was going to say next was also not going to go down very well.

"No offense," he said, glancing at Michael, "but I'm not sure that's going to work. We all need to be able to trust each other or this isn't going to work and you guys sure as hell don't trust him right now."

Raphael glared at Michael, "If you have anything to say to explain yourself now would be a really good time."

Michael shrugged, "I didn't think about the people who might get hurt."

"That's the best you can do?" Kira said hotly.

"Don't act all saint like," Michael snapped, roused out of his pretend indifference, "you'd think you'd never killed anyone in your life the way you've been acting. I'm sorry that Kato got hurt, I am. But if we'd never brought him here then you'd never have met him and you wouldn't have cared. Just like you don't care about all the other people who get killed by Angels and Demons every day. At least he's not dead! At least we saved him!"

"Uriel saved him," Kira shot back.

Michael scoffed, "Uriel made the frame but do you really think he would use a part of himself? Really?"

Raphael looked up sharply, "You mean he…?"

"Used a part of me," said Michael irritably, "I had the spare energy to hand out. Uriel didn't. He said my soul was lighter too, better. Whatever that means," he frowned slightly at the memory but then shook it away, "So really, I think I've made it up to Kato already. Yeah, it's my fault he got hurt, but it's also because of me that he's alive."

"That's…" Kato wrinkled his nose, "That's really weird."

Michael looked slightly peeved, "Really? That's your reaction?"

Kato opened his mouth to respond but Kira spoke before he could, "this does not totally absolve you," he said darkly.

Michael shrugged, as if he didn't particularly care, "doesn't matter. So long as we can get through this thing without you tearing my throat out the first chance you get."

Kira smiled nastily, "I'll make that promise."

"Good!" said Jack cheerily, "because we are running out of time pretty damned quickly and we haven't even started yet."


End file.
